A Meiji-era law requires Japanese couples to choose a single last name. There’s majority public support to repeal – but legislators in Japan’s split Diet can’t agree on a path forward. Now, a new poll shows that a majority of women wish they had had the choice to keep their maiden names when getting married.
52% of women wanted a choice
Article 750 of Japan’s 1898 Civil Code requires Japanese citizens who marry to settle on the same last name. (Foreign residents of Japan are exempt from the law.) In practice, this means that, in 95% of cases, a wife takes her husband’s last name.
The law was modeled after European laws that have long since been repealed. Only Japan is sticking by its surname law. Yuko Tamura wrote for us a while back about how this law negatively impacts Japanese women based on her first-hand experience.
Support among the Japanese public to repeal this law has been building steadily for years. Japan’s largest business association, the Keidanren, has also called for repeal on the grounds that the law disadvantages working women. According to NHK, Keidanren reiterated its support for a “swift” implementation this week to members of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
A new poll by Nikkei highlights this trend. The poll, overseen by professors from Waseda and Osaka Universities, asked 2,347 working men and women whether they wanted to choose a separate surname when they got married. 45% total answered that they did.
Among women, however, the number totaled 52%, as 24.7% said they really wanted to choose their maiden names, while 27.6% said they would’ve been inclined to choose their maiden names. 29.7% of women said they wanted to choose their husband’s name, while 18.1% said that either would’ve been fine.
However, only 29% of women said they’d change their names now if separate spousal surnames were allowed. 40% said too much time has passed using their new names, while 35% said the paperwork involved in changing their names would be too much of a hassle.
What does Japan think?
There’s a fierce battle going on over the proposed change to this 100+-years-old law – both in the press and Japan’s national Diet.
Most polls show majority support for changing the law. Recent surveys include:
Jiji (Neutral; March 6th, 2025): 46% approve, 26% opposed
Asahi Shimbun (Leans liberal; February 16th, 2025): 63% approve, 29% oppose
NHK (Neutral; May 5th 2024): 62% approve, 27% oppose
By contrast, the conservative Sankei Shimbun and TV news network Fuji say they found 51.7% of respondents in favor of preserving the current system and instead making use of maiden names in business and other contexts “more commonplace.” 18.7% in the survey opposed changing the law, leading Sankei to claim that 70% of respondents took a “negative” view of the change.
Sankei’s poll found 28% support for legalizing separate spousal surnames, a 9.5% jump from its last poll.
Slow going in the Diet
Separate spousal surnames has long been opposed by the conservative elements of Japan’s LDP. They argue that it would negatively impact children who’d have different names than their parents. (This doesn’t impact kids in any other country where separate spousal surnames are legal, but go off, I guess.) They contend that Japanese society can achieve the same benefit without impacting kids by making the use of maiden names in the workplace more common.
Asahi’s February 2025 survey found that 65% of respondents didn’t agree with the contention that separate spousal surnames would weaken the family. Even 58% of LDP supporters agreed that it would have no impact.
As a result of this opposition, there was no progress on this issue for over a decade, as the LDP held firm control of both houses of Japan’s national legislative body, the Diet. Hopes for passage improved after the LDP lost control of the Lower House in the October 2024 election.
The LDP is continuing to hold hearings on whether or not to support repeal. The Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), Japan’s leading opposition party in the Diet, fully supports repeal.
According to Mainichi Shimbun, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation also supports repeal and is asking the popular Democratic Party for the People (DPP) to work with the CDP to move it forward. However, despite campaigning on a repeal platform in 2024, the DPP is now slow-rolling its support, citing concerns around how the change would impact both kids and the functioning of Japan’s Family Registry.
The DPP holds 28 seats in the Lower House. Along with the CDP’s 148 seats and support from smaller parties like Reiwa Shinsengumi (nine), the Japan Communist Party (eight), and LDP defectors, supporters could possibly push through the change without official LDP backing.
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