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When a foreign national marries a Japanese national in Japan, there are some additional procedures that need to be followed according to Japanese law. First, the Japanese spouse should submit a certified copy of his/her family register and the foreign national must submit a copy of his/her passport and certificate of Alien Registration.

Upon marriage in Japan a Japanese couple must choose to adopt either the wife’s or the husband’s family name. Therefore, it is not possible for both spouses to keep their pre-marriage names. This is due to the peculiarities of Japan’s family registration system. When two people marry in Japan, one spouse moves into the other’s family tree and takes the other spouse’s family name. Therefore, it isn’t normally possible to have a spouse with a different name from the rest of the family tree. Even though it is equally possible for a husband to take his wife’s last name upon […]