Japan<\/a>\u2019s government to revise the laws and introduce a selective dual-surname system.<\/p>\nBusinesses are among those urging change, saying the rule is proving an obstacle to Japanese firms that do business overseas if female employees use work ID that doesn\u2019t match their surname.<\/p>\n
The powerful business lobby Keidanren has collected testimony from women who say the rule has negatively affected their careers, including academics whose work written under their birth name struggles to gain recognition, and managerial-level women whose \u201cbusiness name\u201d has been rejected when signing contracts.<\/p>\n
According to an internal Keidanren survey, 82% of female executives said they supported allowing married couples to use separate surnames.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe launched the project to highlight a growing issue in Japan, as many people hesitate to marry because of the requirement to change their surname,\u201d said Yuka Maruyama, a creative planner and project initiator at Asuniwa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to present a simple and slightly humorous idea \u2013 matching people who already share the same surname \u2013 in order to make this issue more visible and easier to understand,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Successive Liberal Democratic governments have refused to consider changing the law. Conservative members have led the resistance, arguing that amending the civil code, which was adopted in the late 1800s, would \u201cundermine\u201d the traditional family unit and cause confusion among children.<\/p>\n
\u2018A safe option\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u201cKeeping my maiden name isn\u2019t a deal breaker, but I can see why taking my husband\u2019s name could be inconvenient in, say, the workplace,\u201d says Hana, one of the participants in the matchmaking event. \u201cI\u2019m fine with the idea of separate surnames, but I think it could cause problems when you have children \u2026 which name would they take?\u201d<\/p>\n
A recent survey of 2,500 people in their 20s and 30s who use the dating app Pairs found that 36.6% of women and 46.6% of men felt reluctant about changing their surname, while a smaller proportion of both sexes had misgiving about their partner changing their name. Just over 7% said they would break up if neither partner wanted to change their surname.<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has shown little interest in changing the law. Instead, she supports a bill that would expand legal recognition of birth names in official documents \u2013 a compromise critics say would do little to end the confusion for women who have to use one of two names depending on the circumstances.<\/p>\n
Takaichi took her husband\u2019s surname, Yamamoto, during their first marriage, which ended in 2017. When they remarried in 2021, he officially took the name Takaichi.<\/p>\n
The conservative leader told MPs this month she opposed the introduction of selective separate surnames, preferring, as she had done, to use birth names in certain situations. It was important, she said, for \u201cspouses and their children to share the same surname on the family register\u201d.<\/p>\n
The matchmaking party\u2019s organisers do not follow up with couples for privacy reasons, but some of this evening\u2019s participants appear to have few regrets.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been to matchmaking parties before, but I thought this one would be more interesting,\u201d says *Taisho Suzuki, a 33-year-old company employee. \u201cI hadn\u2019t given much thought to the idea of marrying another Suzuki, but I can see now why it\u2019s a safe option. I don\u2019t want to give up my surname when I marry, and I know a lot of women feel the same about their names.\u201d<\/p>\n
He and his female counterpart have used their shared family name as an icebreaker, laughing as they recounted the times their name was called in government offices and waiting rooms \u2013 prompting responses from multiple people \u2013 before numbered tickets became the norm.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that I\u2019m in my 30s my priorities have changed and I want to marry and have children,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I met a woman with an unusual surname, I\u2019d understand why she would want to keep it. I guess we\u2019d have to sit down and work something out.\u201d<\/p>\n
* First names have been changed at the interviewees\u2019 request<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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