In Japan, the government requires spouses to share a single last name. This means that a woman can’t keep her maiden name unless her husband agrees to adopt it as well. However, according to a Japanese news outlet, one couple who don’t agree with this law has found a novel – if somewhat time-intensive – workaround.
The Spousal Surnames Issue
Regular UJ readers are familiar with the spousal surname law. The law comes from Japan’s Meiji era and was adapted from similar laws at the time in Europe.
The law only applies to Japanese citizens; foreign permanent residents are exempt. The law also doesn’t apply to so-called “international marriages”. In other words, if a Japanese woman marries a non-Japanese man, she can keep her maiden name[1].
European countries have all since removed the law from their own books. And the Japanese public supports changing the law by a wide margin. But Japan’s ruling party, the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP; Japanese: 自民党; jimintou), refuses to take action. (The LDP’s long-time ally, the Komeito, supports changing the law.)
One possible ray of light is the current Prime Minister, the LDP’s Kishida Fumio. Originally, as a member of Japan’s Diet, Kishida supported the separate surname system. However, as PM, he’s stopped short of pushing for reform, declaring only that “we need to debate it.”
The Compromise
The couple's compromise is a uniquely Japanese solution to a uniquely Japanese problem. Share on XThe law has had a small, but measurable, impact on marriage in Japan. Some couples simply remain in common-law marriages and refuse to get married until the law is changed.
However, Asahi Shinbun profiled one couple in Tokyo who had another idea.
The couple told Asahi that, when they met, they had a huge argument over whose last name they would take. The soon-to-be husband assumed his wife would take his because that’s the way it’s “normally” done. (Technically, he’s correct. It’s perfectly legal for a husband to take his wife’s last name. However, that only happens in about 4% of cases.) His future wife, however, didn’t want to abandon her maiden name.
So, they compromised. When they got married, the wife took her husband’s name. Three years later, they got divorced. Then they immediately remarried – except this time, the husband took his wife’s name.
“From Victim to Victimizer”
The couple’s compromise is a uniquely Japanese solution to a uniquely Japanese problem. Divorce by consent is normal in Japan[3]. Between 87% and 90% of divorces never see the light of a courtroom. So the couple’s solution is not only feasible but relatively easy.
Well…not that easy.
But when the couple finally did switch names, she felt guilty: "I felt like I'd gone from being the victim to being the victimizer." Share on XWhen they first married, the wife took a new job. Her new company didn’t allow female employees to use their maiden names. (Currently, slightly less than half of Japanese companies allow this – and it tends to be the larger firms that do. The majority of companies with fewer than 100 employees do not allow it[4].) As a result, she says she felt a lot of pain and anguish at relinquishing her maiden name. But when the couple finally did switch names, she felt guilty: “I felt like I’d gone from being the victim to being the victimizer.”
For his part, the husband had to make some adjustments too. He also found that he couldn’t keep his bachelor name in certain situations – e.g., on his health insurance cards. He tells Asahi about a time he went to the doctor’s and they called his wife’s last name three times before he realized, “Oh wait, that’s me.”
The procedure isn’t without its bureaucratic hassles, either. Whenever the couple changes their names, they have to change it on everything. That includes bank accounts, health insurance accounts, and their identification and passports to boot.
Additionally, the couple says their friends and colleagues either don’t understand their system or criticize it roundly. Indeed, some commenters online are blasting the couple for “causing trouble” for city administrators who have to process their claims every three years.
Better Solutions?
The couple, says Asahi, is looking at other, more permanent solutions. For example, a Tokyo court recently ruled that director Soda Kazuhiro and producer Kashiwagi Kiyoko could keep their separate last names because they’d married in America.
When I initially posted about this issue on Twitter, someone asked whether the couple couldn’t simply choose a new name unique to their relationship. Now, I Am Not a Lawyer. And I’m definitely not a Japanese lawyer. However, it seems like that’s feasible. The marriage law (Article 750 in Japan’s Civil Code) states that a couple must select either the husband or wife’s name when they wed. And it’s possible to change one’s name under Japanese law. So, theoretically, one member (or both) of the couple could change their last name prior to marriage and adopt that.
However, many women don’t want to create a new last name. They simply want to keep their current one. And a majority in Japan think they should have that right. Whether the law will change to allow it remains to be seen.
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Sources
[1] 国際結婚の場合は夫婦別姓が認められる. Visa-Immigration.net
[2] 3年おきの離婚と再婚 渋谷でのケンカから10年、別姓かなわぬ国で. Asahi Shinbun
[3] 日本の離婚制度は、他の国に比べ簡単に離婚できる？e-rikon
[4] 旧姓使用の状況. Gender Equality Bureau Cabinet Office
