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Marital Surname System in Japan — Fufubessei Issues and Disparate Impact of Civil Code Article 750 and Koseki Law

2022; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.2139/ssrn.4266848

1556-5068

Reiko Kato, Etsuko Toyoda,

Social and Cultural Studies

"Selective marital surname" has reemerged in media headlines. Japan appears to be the only country in the world that holds onto the unitary surname system, under which 96% of wives relinquish their birth surnames. Majority of the Japanese population seems to accept, wittingly or unwittingly, the current system. However, some people through their life experiences, realize the importance of the individual self, and for them, the marital law does not protect the individual's right to make their own decisions in their own lives, including surnaming. These people view legal marriage as being molded by the discriminatory marital law, which disadvantages certain groups of people. At the grassroot level, liberal lawyers and feminist activists have been advocating for the introduction of a system that allows a married couple to choose whether they select one family name or retain their own surnames. Some activists took the matter to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, which has been pressuring the Japanese government. In response to the internal and external pressure, the government formed a research committee to seek solutions, but these efforts have been blocked by conservative governments and nationalist political pressure groups. This paper presents that the current Japanese law pertaining to a marital surname produces a disparate treatment of part of population, despite the law facially providing individual freedom of choice and gender equality as stipulated in the Japanese constitution. Nihonkoku Kenpo [Kenpo][Constitution], art. 13, 14, and 24 (Japan). We approach this issue with both social and legal backgrounds covering the patrilineal legacy, legal reform and societal expectations, followed by a brief history of social movements supporting or opposing revisions of marital laws, then describes the 2015 marital surname lawsuit questioning constitutionality.