Can Japan’s married women finally keep maiden names after business lobby’s push for new law?

The Keidanren says the current law prohibiting Japanese women from keeping their maiden names is harming the nation’s business

Japan’s conservative politicians have been resistant to change as they claim changing the law would undermine the family unit

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People cross a street in Tokyo’s Ueno district. Photo: AP

Published: 1:00pm, 18 Feb 2024

A campaign by women in Japan to obtain legal equality for their identities has received a boost after the head of the nation’s largest business lobby expressed support for a change in the law that would allow women to keep their maiden names after marriage.

Campaigners say Japan is the only country in the world that obliges married couples to have the same surname, and unsurprisingly, the man’s family name is overwhelmingly the one chosen. Activists say it is a patriarchal remnant of the legal system held in place by conservative male politicians.

But the control exercised by those men is coming to an end, activists say, pointing out that if the head of the influential Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) has come around to the idea of women keeping their maiden names, it is only a matter of time before the traditionalists relent.

Traditionalists say allowing a woman to retain her maiden name would undermine the family unit. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Keidanren chairman Masakazu Tokura on Tuesday expressed his position, which has been the subject of intense debate for nearly 20 years, telling a press conference: “I personally think it should be done. I want it to be implemented as a top priority to support women’s working styles.”

Keidanren has announced it is drawing up a paper to recommend that the law be amended to allow for different surnames, and that it would be submitted to the government later this year.

Tokura also said he was surprised at why the question “has been left hanging for so long”, after a Justice Ministry panel recommended in 1996 that the Civil Code be amended to allow for separate surnames.

The panel’s recommendations did not go further, as conservative members of the Diet indicated they would fight it because it would undermine the cohesion of the family unit and weaken traditional values.