American use of Japanese naming conventions


I am an American; if I were going to live in Japan for any amount of time and
conduct business, on official documents, could/would I write my name as
Americans do (first-last) or as Japanese do (last-first)?




In most of the time you're going to keep given name first, unless otherwise
designated (like in some application forms). Japanese know, and expect that
Western names (actually, almost everywhere outside East Asia) are expressed in
this order.

However, you may see your name spelled with family name first in some
documents, when they are compiled for indexing purposes (e.g. employee list).
It doesn't mean you'd be addressed in that way, though. If you're asked to
tell your name always from the family name, I'm sure that it's a very special
practice in that industry.

