Job Discussion Forums

[ShioriEigoKyoushi]

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[Apsara]

Do you mean you registered a katakana alias (touroku tsuushoumei), Shiori? Usually the name on your ARC is the same as the one in your passport, so it would be in romaji on your card as well. Or is it a new thing on ARCs to also have the katakana version of your name? Mine only has the romaji version, but it's quite old so close to expiry.

If it is a registered alias and you can provide proof that you are using a different katakana spelling of the name, then it's possible the ward office will let you change it.

[seklarwia]

[fluffyhamster]

I think the moral of the story is to let the very first official you're dealing with write down your name, if they say a kana version is necessary, even if you reckon you could manage to write it yourself. Let them do all the work and worrying. Who cares if it ends up as Hamusutaafuraffu or whatever, the important thing is that that is the version they'll be happier dealing with, and it 99.99999% won't contain any actual mistakes/little slips or blips (but you should obviously point out any glaring errors, especially in your name as written alphabetically). I mean, imagine if somebody set up an account in your home country and then started claiming their surname should've actually been Bolley rather than Polley, and that it only requires the addition of another simple loop on the P.

Or, if I had written a kana b- syllable rather than a p- say, I'd try when getting anything offical done to keep saying my name as incorrect B- rather than P-, whilst flashing just the ARC and keeping my passport tucked safely away. But if the worst did finally come to the worst (which it appears to have done here), I would just try going back to the City Hall to get a new ARC issued - claim you've lost it, and maybe even admit your/the mistake? (I'm sure it will be slightly easier dealing with the civil servants than with the bank staff - Japanese banks aren't particularly customer-oriented, for all their high-tech machines and surface bows and smiles. Their charges alone are not exactly nice or helpful! ). But it's probably best if you avoid saying that you're having problems with the bank specifically - just say that a new corrected card will make things generally easier and be better for everyone, and that you were worrying about it or something.

I was lucky when first setting up stuff in that the clerks asked me to say my name, point out family versus first names as a double check etc. I can't remember though if either of my actual ARCs (I entered Japan twice, in 1999, then later in 2003) had any kana on 'em...probably not.

[ShioriEigoKyoushi]

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[fluffyhamster]

Seems like you need to change bank! They don't sound very helpful - in fact, they sound incompetent and obstructive.

Reminds me of when I was getting some money transferred from the UK (I would've done it via Western Union, who are very dependable, but this time it simply wasn't convenient to trek into Nihonbashi). Unfortunately I'd forgotten to tell my Seibu bank my new phone number (my old phone had blown up, and the bank account was actually the other side of Tokyo by then, as I'd had to move to new work elsewhere), so they couldn't call me to ask the reason for the transfer and thus release the funds (I'd also forgotten that they tended to do this! Which made the differing phone number a real problem)...obviously as time wore on and my account display on repeated visits to whichever bank's local ATM continued to still read only 98 yen, I finally realized what was wrong and therefore called them on my new phone, asking where my money was and requesting it be released and credited pronto, whilst of course apologizing for the new number and furnishing them with all sorts of details establishing my identity. But do you think they'd take my word for it that I was indeed Mr Fluffyhamster (but simply with a new phone) and that I wasn't laundering such a comparatively paltry sum for the purposes of funding international terrorism or sunflower-seed dealing or whatever? Nope. They insisted that they needed to call "me" on my old number and hear words like 'Gift desu' from that source and that source only. So I ended up having to head into Nihonbashi after all (the next day), on literally my last few dimes (had to walk down from Akihabara - not that it's that far, but a direct connection would've been nicer, had I been able to afford it!) to get any sort of sum of money into my pocket, and then promptly strode into the nearest Seibu (Shinjuku, as it happened), recorded my new phone number with them, got my money (in fact emptied the account of every last yen), then in the very same visit closed the account down for good. I think that told them I was not happy with their (well, at least their other, unhelpful branch's) an*l-retentiveness masquerading as service! (BTW, the original Seibu had simply been too far to afford the journey there, but even if I'd had the fare there, I didn't fancy arguing my case in person but still possibly being refused even enough money for the return journey home!).

Oh, and if you're wondering why I was so short of money, I have just one word: dispatch!

Anyway, just trying to make you feel better, Shiori! (Has my "tale of woe" trumped yours? ).

P.S: Any chance the cable internet company could issue you with convenience store-payable bills rather than arranging the direct debit? (Not quite as convenient as direct debit, but could beat beating up "unbeatable" bank staff!).

[ShioriEigoKyoushi]

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[fluffyhamster]

Heh, they tend to do that too eh. (Interesting how they don't mind who they're talking to when it suits them!). Probably best then to just change banks (and maybe the ARC too, beforehand)!

[wayne432]

I had a problem with my bank and gym... (My gym was trying to take get direct withdrawals)
Similar thing, I wrote in japanese on one and romaji on the other...
I changed everything around
Basically everything had to match up perfectly.
They told me too that if your signatures weren't almost exactly matching and stuff that whoever did the paperwork could just reject it.

It took about 6-7 tries to go through.