Name-related headaches are part and parcel of life as a foreigner in Japan. Fitting foreign names into the katakana syllabary, which is used for non-Japanese words, can leave your moniker almost unrecognizable. Some Japanese are not sure whether to use a foreign person's first or last name. Many a foreign professional in the Japanese workplace is called by their first name like a child, while the surrounding Japanese are addressed by their last name plus the honorific san, as is customary in the business world.
Annoying and frustrating as such things can be, however, imagine if your name had been taken and rendered into something so farcical that you didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This is the situation now facing some German nationals since the introduction of the zairyū (residence) card for foreigners in 2012. A group of German women shared their story with The Japan Times.
Take Gabriele Kubo, for example. Since she runs a family business with her Japanese husband, she uses his family name in daily life. However, her "official" name on her German passport also includes her middle name and maiden name, listing her as "Gabriele Theresia Wagner-Kubo." That's all well and good, but her Japanese zairyū card contains this mouthful: "Wagner Kubo Geb Wagner Gabriele Theresia."
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