[dirtyroboto]

I am getting married next month and the situation is this. You keep your name and use katakana. If you wish to take the Japanese family name as I do then you have to change your name by Deed Poll.
You will have to consult your embassy and pay money to do a name change. You can change your name to anything you want with a few exeptions but this must be done by dealing with your own embassy.

As my wife to be is the only daughter and I wish to live in Japan I will be changing my family name to hers, I will retain my first name as it can be TX'd to good kanji but my original family name is hard enough for english speakers, Japanese have very little hope of getting their minds around it. It has V's H's O's and R's so is about 2 hours of explaining.

真亜久