Six names on an Egyptian passport in Japan. That is where this story starts.
Landed in Osaka a little bit over a year now, as an Egyptian Engineer. Not going to lie, the first couple of months were too chaotic, even when I was trying to follow as much of the advice that I found on the internet as possible. Not like crazy chaos, but the type where nothing goes the way you'd expect it to.
Some of the things I genuinely wish someone told me before I arrived:
The Katakana version of your name is something you kinda choose. No bank will ever accept changing it afterwards except with legal documentation proving the need for said change in credentials.
Cash cards are really for just withdrawing cash, sometimes you can use them for services that need direct account debit, like phone service providers, gyms, etc. You will need to apply for a debit card separately, and you don't necessarily need to wait 6 months for that.
The six month rule for big banks is not specifically set in stone, it's more of a guideline. If you have proof of employment, payslips, and enough Japanese to have a real conversation, you're probably good. I was able to open an SMBC account within my first four months.
If you are applying for a credit card, your occupation is 会社員. Not your actual job title. Just 会社員. I learned this the hard way, by getting the fastest rejection ever [It was automated anyway haha].
If you have a long name. such as myself here with six names on my passport, eKYC, last name and first name forms are going to become your greatest enemies. If you can find a way to manually verify always go for that.
At some point I ended up having a Zoom meeting with a software engineer at one of the banks to figure out what was happening with my name in their system. That was a memorable experience lol.
Beyond logistics, systems and banking. building genuine connections here takes time, but it is possible. Do not isolate yourself. Even one conversation a day makes a huge difference. More than you'd think.
Happy to answer anything, been through many or mayeb even most of the edge cases at this point and I have a lot of lore to share.
by xBarbary
5 comments
I “only” have 3 names, a pretty long middle name for Japanese standards tho and usually it was never an issue to use my FULL name for anything, even my bank account…that was until I applied for a debit card. I went in person because I knew it might cause an issue and when filling out the stuff on their tablet when it came to my name I just asked them right away what to do about my middle name since the screen didn’t even have an option for that.
Dude told me to wait a moment, was gone for about 5 minutes and came back just saying “guess first and last name are gonna be enough”. Even if my actual bank account uses my FULL name (funnily enough my cash card cut off the last 2 kana of my middle name since there simply isn’t enough space on the card lol).
So my advice would also be to just go in person when possible and ASK the staff members, usually dealing with those things isn’t as impossible as some people make it out to be. And if your Japanese is decent enough to handle those conversations yourself you’ll pretty much never have any trouble getting those things sorted, at least that’s my experience in my 2.5 years in Japan so far.
You gotta listen to the Nate Bargatze joke about names and IDs
Japan was where I learned that I technically don’t have a middle name, I have two first names 🤔
The fact that you had to have a Zoom meeting with one of the bank programmers is wild lol
But I surely admire your persistence!
Another Egyptian here. I had to get 通称名 just to be able to connect different services. I still cannot my bank to Paypal as they want to use 在留 card for verification, which doesn’t have the alias.
Good luck!
Comments are closed.