What is Your Name? – Gender Inequality Embedded in the Same-Surname System for Married Couples in Japan
by Ayako Hatano | May 9, 2024

Japan is the only country in the world that forbids married couples from using separate surnames. Couples can choose the surname of either spouse at the time of marriage, but in around 95% of cases, it is the wife who changes her surname. In March 2024, six Japanese couples filed a lawsuit against the government, alleging that the laws mandating the use of the same surname for married couples violate constitutional principles of gender equality and individual dignity.

In Japan, under Article 750 of the Civil Code and Article 74 of the Family Register Act, married couples must have the same surname, except in cases where at least one of the spouses is a foreign national. The practice for couples to have the same surname dates back to the 19th century. Under the male-headed, patrilineal family structure, called the ‘ie’ system in Japan, women were expected to join and become part of their husband’s family unit upon marriage, thus changing their surname to their husband’s ‘family name’. The ie system was legally codified in parts of the former Meiji Civil Code in 1898. While the revised Civil Code of 1947 abolished the ie system, vestiges of this system still remain present in the regulation of the surname system and customs surrounding it.

See more in the link below:
https://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/what-is-your-name-gender-inequality-embedded-in-the-same-surname-system-for-married-couples-in-japan/

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About Ayako Hatano
Ayako Hatano is a DPhil candidate in Law at the University of Oxford (Clarendon Scholar). She earned her LL.M. in International Legal Studies from New York University School of Law (Fulbright Scholar) and holds a B.A., M.A., and J.D. from the University of Tokyo. Her research interests lie in the internalisation of international human rights law, law and development, and business and human rights.