マイペース、マイ・スタイル！　～日本語がぺらぺらになるには～

And your child doesn''t have to be born in the States to get an official document. My son has a "consular report of birth abroad," which is the equivalent of a birth certificate for US citizens born overseas. We chose to give him a Japanese name that is pronounced the way it is spelled in romaji, so he has identical names on both passports. But the consular official asked us if that was the spelling we wanted, if we wanted to add a middle name or give him my maiden name as a middle name. It''s possible, even though we chose not to do it. That is possible whether your wife changes her name or not though. Your child can have two completely different names on the koseki and the consular report of birth abroad, both are official legal documents and will be considered the child''s real, full name in each country. Apparently it can be kind of a pain to go through immigration, get plane tickets, etc if you''Ve got two passports, one that says "John Smith" and one that says "Taro Suzuki," but I don''t know from personal experience if it''s really that much of a pain or not.

The OP didn''t mention whether he was American or not though. A US citizen can do that, but I''m not sure about any other country.

If you don''t plan to live in Japan forever it''s less of a big deal, you can always name your kids "Smith-Suzuki" or whatever in the other country. But if you want your kids to have your last name IN JAPAN... yeah, as I said, the husband and wife jsut have to agree on the best way to come the closest to doing that, or decide together that it''s not important.