Japan is the only country in the world that requires spouses to use the same name, but after decades of inaction, appetite for change is building
Good article. Hope they can get this archaic law changed soon.
I told my wife she could keep her name (the spouses don’t have to have the same name if one is a foreigner), but she wanted to change. I had planned on eventually obtaining Japanese citizenship and wanted to take her maiden name (rare) and add a kanji that sounds like part of my last name to form my Japanese name which she could then take if she wanted. That would still be years off (after my parents pass) if I did it. She still uses her maiden name for everything at work except the official paperwork.
Also, FFS, let foreigners have a kouseki while we’re at it so we’re not locked out of things requiring our own.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Now attention is turning to the archaic law that forbids married couples from using separate surnames, and the almost three decades of inaction after a government panel drew up proposals to change part of a civil code first adopted in the late 1800s.
Machiko Osawa, a professor and specialist in labour economics at Japan Women’s University, blames the lack of progress on “old-fashioned patriarchal attitudes” in the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) and among supreme court justices “who insist on supporting an antediluvian status quo”.
While almost 84% of companies allow women to keep their original surnames in the workplace, according to a 2022 survey by the Institute of Labour Administration, the extra documentation needed on overseas work trips continues to cause confusion.
“I want it to be implemented as a top priority to support women’s working styles,” Keidanren’s head, Masakazu Tokura, said recently, declaring himself “bewildered” by the lack of progress since the ministry panel made its recommendation in 1996.
Conservative LDP members argue that amending the civil code would amount to an assault on traditional values by “undermining” family unity and causing confusion among children.
The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has urged caution, claiming last year that “various opinions among the public” meant more discussion was needed to win “broad” support for the change.
The original article contains 817 words, the summary contains 216 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Locked out of hotel rooms
How does that happen? Concierge assumes you’re not the person on the booking?
Sounds like the business booked under the person’s maiden name (as they wanted to continue using it at work), but passport would have their legal name. I just checked my wife’s and her maiden name isn’t recorded anywhere on it.
