Not sure anyone in that tag group knows. You’d probably need Koichi, or resurrect Hashi or Viet.
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That is really a bummer. I can understand why people would default to a Japanese person I’m with since I only have N5/N4 understanding and it clearly shows.
You’re obviously quite knowledgeable though and working towards translation level certification. /:
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ちょっとヤバイ
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I mean, I can understand glancing at a Japanese person you’re with if they’re having trouble understanding what was said. But it’s the whole looking at the other person while they say something meant to be a reply to you which is the most strange. Like, if the Japanese person needs to interpret, they don’t need you to face them to be able to hear what was said.
Hopefully it gives them something to think about for the next time they have to interact with a foreigner.
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Absolutely. How often do they actually think about it though? It seems like a lot of Japanese netizens like to claim these things never happen or that the staff was just stupid ):
Like @CDR-Strawberry, I really thought James Craburn was your name! 
But you’re your own sect! ^>^ (and durtle! 
)
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Back on topic: I think that unless there are any drawbacks to creating a legal alias for yourself, do it. Seems like a smother solution to some of the problems that’s been discussed in the thread, like giving your name online or to Japanese people. 
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I don’t know if I’d ever go all in to changing my name/using an alias, but I do think it would make some aspects of life much simpler. At my previous company, the staff assisted all new teachers with getting a Japanese bank account and I was kind of just at their mercy I guess and they had a proper kanji 判子 made for me and we used that when making the bank account. I still have it but I really don’t know that it was ever properly registered and I’m not even sure what it reads because my name contains some sound combinations that do not really happen in Japanese so I don’t know what she went with.
That being said, a constant problem I have is with Softbank!! When starting a new contract, they said they needed my name is it was printed in my passport/在留カード which is in Latin letters. But every few years, I run into little hiccups where I need to change my American credit card information and I have to physically go into the shop and have them do it because the My Softbank app will only allow names written in kana. But since my name wasn’t written in kana in the first place, anything I enter doesn’t count as a match. I’ve tried every combination, but it always gives me the angry red warning to type with full-width kana. But if I do that, no no no, that’s not what it says in your file.
Really I’m just mad that they make you connect a credit card to it in the first place. I’d much rather they just send me paper bills cuz as it’s been said, there can be issues getting a credit card because of various things (my friend got a card and when the mail came to deliver it the mail carrier asked to see their residence card but due to character limits, part of their name was cut off and the mail carrier determined the names to not match because of it and wouldn’t give the card over. I forget what my friend had to do to get it but they did in the end…But like days later…) so since Softbank requires a card, I have to use my American credit card and it auto-debits from there. But sometimes things happen like…I get issued a new card when the old one expires and I have to wait to recieve my new card to activate it or my mom moved houses so now no payments will go through and then they have to send the paper bills anyway but now it also looks like I’m chronically a late payer! >< I just want to use paper statements again! ;^;
Uhh, rant over…tl;dr, I probably won’t do it but it would make some things less annoying. xD
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So the issue with a lot of foreign names on forms isn’t the use of kanji, especially from European countries/the West is the use of a middle name to match legal documents. So even if you had kanji for it, I think there may still be a character limit when writing in the furigana. While my hanko has kanji for my last name (made by my employer actually) Scott→スコット→寿古都, I don’t think I would ever have it changed or my first name/middle name unless I decided to go the route of naturalization.
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