Japanese Name - Names From Other Ethnic Groups in Japan

Names From Other Ethnic Groups in Japan

Many ethnic minorities, mostly Korean and Chinese, living in Japan adopt Japanese names. The roots of this custom go back to the colonial-era policy of sōshi-kaimei, which permitted many Koreans to change their names to Japanese names. Nowadays, ethnic minorities, mostly Korean, who immigrated to Japan after the WWII, take on Japanese names, sometimes called pass names, to ease communication and, more importantly, to avoid discrimination. A few of them (e.g., Han Chang-Woo, founder and chairman of Maruhan Corp.) still keep their native names.

Japanese citizenship used to require adoption of a Japanese name. In recent decades, the government has allowed individuals to simply adopt katakana versions of their native names when applying for citizenship: National Diet member Tsurunen Marutei (ツルネン マルテイ), originally Martti Turunen, who is Finnish, is a famous example. Others transliterate their names into phonetically similar kanji compounds, such as activist Arudou Debito (有道 出人), an American previously known as David Aldwinckle. Still others have abandoned their native names entirely in favor of traditional Japanese names, such as Lafcadio Hearn (who was half Anglo-Irish and half Greek), who used the name "Koizumi Yakumo" (小泉 八雲). At the time, to gain Japanese citizenship, it was necessary to be adopted by a Japanese family (in Hearn's case, it was his wife's family) and take their name.

Ethnic Chinese and Koreans in Japan who choose to renounce Permanent Resident status to apply for Japanese citizenship sometimes have to change the characters in their names to apply for citizenship, because of the restrictions on which kanji can be used.

Individuals born overseas with Western given names and Japanese surnames are usually given a katakana name in Western order when referred to in Japanese. Eric Shinseki, for instance, is referred to as エリック シンセキ (Erikku Shinseki). However, sometimes Japanese parents decide to use Japanese order when mentioning the child's name in Japanese. Also, Japanese parents tend to give their children a name in kanji, hiragana or katakana, particularly if it is a Japanese name.

There is a restriction (as of 2001) on the use of the "v" character in a name unless at least one of the parents is of foreign origin. The closest corresponding katakana is ヴ (vu), which can be romanized as v or b. This affects issuing of Japanese passports or other documentation where a romaji representation of the name is given; the letter v is replaced with b. This affects names such as Kevin (ケヴィン), which would be written as Kebin.