This puts me in mind of my credit card, whose database believes I am "Patrick McKenzie" and whose web tier enjoys throwing a "That input wasn't written in kana, please try again" on the "sign up for online access" page. When I called the credit card company to complain, they told me that they would need a government issued ID certifying to my name in kana prior to changing their DB record. The government will happily issue me an ID, and indeed legally mandate that I carry it everywhere, but only for my name exactly as it appears on my passport. US passports don't include kana? "Not our problem."
Strangely enough, the small town bank that I do business with has been absurdly solicitous about this, and when a similar string comparison caused a bill payment to fail, the manager added a note to the file saying that dishonoring any bill directed to a foreign client at our branch office would henceforth require his written approval. It's just the gigantic megacorp bank in Tokyo which hasn't figured out that foreigners exist yet.
My first name is "Judge" and it gets dropped as a title every once in a while. I had a credit card issued with my middle initial as my first name. When I called to have it changed to my real name they insisted that documentation be provided to prove it. My immediate response was to cancel the credit card because creating a new account had a lower barrier to entry than correcting information in an existing account. Likewise, this was a "megacorp" bank.
Somewhat understandable.
Most passports that use different alphabets also tend to have romanized names on them to prevent this type of thing at immigration points.... do you think US Banks and tellers accept names in kana or kanji, cyrillic, greek, arabic, etc?
Strangely enough, the small town bank that I do business with has been absurdly solicitous about this, and when a similar string comparison caused a bill payment to fail, the manager added a note to the file saying that dishonoring any bill directed to a foreign client at our branch office would henceforth require his written approval. It's just the gigantic megacorp bank in Tokyo which hasn't figured out that foreigners exist yet.