Becoming Japanese

the e-passport symbol on the book front cover My family went to the passport center near the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building ( 都庁 { tochō } ) to renew my child's passport last Sunday. Yes, you heard me right. A government service that was open on Sunday . That's unusual even in Japan too. Her blue passport (minors can only get the five (5) year blue passport) had been prepared for her. Upon stepping up to the counter, the lady asked her a few simple questions to confirm that everything on the passport was correct. (ex. "What's you name? What's your birthday") the passport is laid on top of the terminal to the left She then opened up the passport to the first page (on Japanese passports, the vital information is on the first page, not the inside of the cover) and placed the book on a special reader that read both the MRZ (machine readable zone) and the contact-less IC chip. Upon doing this, the monitor on the counter displayed everythi...

(that's actually a European license) If you had a Japanese driver's license before you naturalized, you will have to change both you name and your 本籍 { honseki } (registered domicile [for your family register]) on it. Your original name on the front will remain unchanged on the front and they will simply add a two notations on the back indicating your new Japanese new and indicating that the 本籍 { honseki } (registered domicile) has changed. Additionally, they will reprogram the IC chip inside so that it reflects the new name and the new registered domicile. Unfortunately, despite this major change to your identification, you will have to wait until near the ".. valid until" (‥ まで有効 { made yūkō } ) date to get a fresh license. And you will still have to live with the damn awful photo. After bringing your updated 住民票 { jūminhyō } (proof of residency registration) and you license to a center to update (no fee or charge), my license looked like this: ...