Your child's name at a Japanese school: the legal name, the alias, and the reading

A Japanese school keeps more than one version of a child's name. The teacher is told to record a legal name and a calling name. The municipal computer that prints the school-entry notice is specified to store several more. The pages read do not let you pick any nickname and have it used. They do give you the words to check before the first name tape goes on a shoe locker.

What the teacher is told to write down

MEXT's handbook for receiving foreign children puts two items on the intake sheet the homeroom teacher should fill in at the first meeting: 本名 (honmyō, the formal name) and 呼称 (koshō, the name the child is called). The same chapter's case study says why:

名前は、個人のアイデンティティの根源です。本名をしっかりと確認し、書類等に記入する （してもらう）ことが重要です。

Japanese forms assume two boxes, family name and given name, because that is how a Japanese name is built. The handbook says the world's names do not always fit:

世界には様々な名前が存在し、必ずしも 2 つの枠に収まるとは限りません。

And it warns that an alphabet name gets rewritten on the way in. The example is a South American name registered with an English pronunciation:

英語的な発音 （例：パウロ→ポール等）で登録してしまうこともあるようです。

The handbook says the child often does not notice, or notices and stays quiet, and that the problem appears later. It tells the teacher to keep this in mind. It never mentions katakana, and it does not set a spelling the school must use.

What may sit on the residence record

The name the board's computer prefers to start from is the one on the 住民票 (jūminhyō, the residence record). MEXT's August 2024 standard specification for the school-age register (学齢簿, gakureibo) defines 通称 (tsūshō) by pointing at the residence-record ordinance:

外国人住民の氏名以外の呼称であって、国内における社会生活上通用していることその他の事由により居住関係の公証のために住民票に記載することが認められるもの

A school form does not create that entry. City hall does, under the ordinance, and only when the conditions in the quote are met.

The same glossary then says 通称名 and 併記名 (heikimei, a name written alongside) are leftovers of the old alien-registration system, not current law, and that this specification does not use those terms. A roman name and a kanji name printed together on a residence card are both the legal name, not an alias.

The requirements of the same document still tell the software to store, for a foreign-national child, 本国名 (hongokumei, the name in the home country), 通称名 and 併記名 separately, plus a カナ氏名 (kana shimei, the katakana reading) of each. Ask the board which of those fields your child's record uses. The menu is what the software can hold, not a choice the specification gives you.

A Japanese national's 通称名 is a different field in the same specification. The reason given is divorce or a support measure, where the name in daily use (通名, tsūmei) differs from the legal name. A foreign-national alias does not go in that box. A dual-national child can be filed as a Japanese national; ask which record the board is using before anyone types.

What gets printed on a notice

When a foreign-national child's name is printed on a form, the specification says the system must be able to choose:

本国名、通称名又は併記名の何れかを選択できること。

A second clause says the choice is among the roman name, the kanji name and the 通称名. For the name on an envelope, the default order is stated:

外国人の場合、通称名、外国人氏名漢字、外国人氏名英字の順に登録があるものを優先して氏名とする

A 氏名優先区分 (a flag for which name comes first) overrides that order. This is the notice the board posts, including the 就学通知 (shūgaku tsūchi, the letter that names the elementary school). It does not decide what classmates call your child.

On lists, the standard line for a foreign national is the roman name, then the kanji name. Katakana is a separate reading field (フリガナ, furigana). Families report the shoe locker, the roll and the gym-kit tape in katakana even when the passport is roman. That is practice. Check it in the first week.

One Tokyo public exam form already has a box for a registered alias. How that form wants the residence-record name and the alias written is in the combined-school application papers. That rule is that form's rule.

What to say at the intake

Take the residence record, the residence card and the passport. Point at the line you want copied. Then say the calling name as a second item, which is the split the handbook puts on the sheet:

住民票の氏名はこちらのとおりです。呼称は別に「〇〇」でお願いします。

To stop the handbook's own example from happening:

読みは「パウロ」です。「ポール」にはしないでください。

If the paper has only two boxes and the name has three parts or one:

この名前は姓と名の2つの欄に分かれません。氏名欄にまとめて記載してください。

Ask which stored name the next notice will print, and ask to see the フリガナ before it is saved. The handbook tells the teacher to try to have an interpreter at the intake; the school may not find one.

What it costs

Nothing on either page for recording a name at school. A copy of the residence record has a municipal fee; the amount is not on these pages. Ask the ward counter.

What goes wrong

• A three-part name is split so that the middle name becomes the family name, and every later certificate copies the split.
• The reading is anglicised on day one. The handbook says people notice too late.
• The name you use at home is not on the residence record, so the register has no 通称 to print. City hall is the place that can enter one, under the ordinance quoted above, and only when the conditions there are met.
• A new homeroom teacher in April uses a different version. Re-send the one-line note every April.
• A dual-national child is typed into the Japanese-national alias field, which the specification reserves for other cases.

What to do now

1. Order a residence record and read every name line before the intake or the transfer interview.
2. If a 通称 is already printed there, show that line. If it is not, do not expect the school to invent one.
3. At the meeting, give 本名 and 呼称 as two items, and spell the reading.
4. When the 就学通知, the name tape or the class list arrives, compare it with the residence record the same day.
5. If the two-box form has already split the name, ask for the full name to be restored before the next certificate is issued.