RIGHTS-JAPAN: Debate over Surnames Upsets Old Gender Roles

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 11 2002 (IPS) - Tomoko Maeda, 40, had a dream wedding six years ago. She and her "spouse" paid almost 20,000 U.S. dollars for the celebration that included a white wedding dress, a church ceremony, and a party with 80 guests with a champagne dinner at a posh hotel.

"The wedding was planned without the most important part of a marriage – registering our marriage that would legally make us husband and wife," says Maeda.

Maeda, a freelance writer, says she at first rejected her partner’s marriage proposal because Japanese civil laws do not allow married couples to use their own family names.

"Being able to maintain my own name in a marriage is important to me as a way of standing up to traditional Japanese social rules that force women to follow men. Despite us not being legally married, we are perfectly happy," she points out.

The issue of allowing Japanese spouses to keep their own surnames after marriage has been the subject of a long-time campaign by women’s organisations, which are trying to have a bill passed to allow spouses to keep their own surnames after marriage.

But they are pitched against powerful male politicians in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who argue that having the same surname protects family unity.

This symbolic way of preserving family unity is important given the social breakdown in ‘modern’ Japan, which is no longer as traditionally centred on the family, say members of the LDP judicial affairs division that objected to the submission of the latest bill on separate surnames to the April Diet session.

A landmark in the intensive campaign by women activists took place in 1996, when the Legislative Council, an advisory body to the justice minister, put forth a draft bill to revise the Civil Code to introduce a two-family name system.

Since then, activists have made piecemeal breakthroughs. In one instance, new legislation to change the old system almost made it to the Japanese Diet or Parliament following the submission of a petition with 1.8 million signatures from women.

Proponents got a new break recently when Justice Minister Maumi Moriyama herself endorsed the much-anticipated change, though under a "exceptions" clause in a bid to placate senior politicians opposed to it.

Moriyama has proposed a new ”exceptions” legislation in which spouses who keep their own surnames after marriage would also be able to decide on the surname of their children when the first child is born.

The proposed legislation is also aimed at easing the worst fears of women who are torn between keeping their surnames and wanting to avoid having their children take their husbands’ surname as well.

"All we are asking is to allow women to be able to legally retain their surnames when they marry. The opposition is incredibly fierce, a fitting illustration of the lowly status of women in this country," says Mitsuko Yamaguchi, spokeswoman for International Women’s Year Liaison Group, one of Japan’s oldest grassroots feminist groups.

Yamaguchi explains that activists are now hoping the bill can be debated in the Diet in January.

According to analysts, the issue of a dual family name system lies at the root of traditional Japan, which is based on a family register that keeps records of the family members.

When a Japanese national marries, the husband heads a family register in which his spouse and children are recorded. The system is a representation of feudal Japan, where women were restricted to supportive roles to men as wives and mothers.

Yamaguchi says the family register speaks volumes about how the rights of women as equal partners are often ignored in marriage.

While the new law would not change gender relations overnight, some say it would certainly drive the point of equality home – and out into the open. ”The new law would allow Japanese women to be treated equally at both in public and at home,” Yamaguchi explains.

For example, women who go by their maiden names these days need to show evidence to prove they are the person listed in their family register when applying for a passport, a driver’s license or registering real estate.

Seiko Noda, a younger member in the Liberal Democratic Party who supports the revision of the current civil code, points out that "families are made up of individuals and Japan should leave the surname issue up to their discretion”.

Indeed, a survey carried out by the Prime Minister’s Office in August, indicates that more than 51 percent of males in their twenties support a revision of the Civil Code.

Increasingly too, Japanese women have begun to use their maiden name when on business or among friends.

Already, 16 prefectural governments allow employees to use their premarital family names, and the central government will also starting doing the same this month.

RIGHTS-JAPAN: Debate over Surnames Upsets Old Gender Roles

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 11 2002 (IPS) - Tomoko Maeda, 40, had a dream wedding six years ago. She and her “spouse” paid almost 20,000 U.S. dollars for the celebration that included a white wedding dress, a church ceremony, and a party with 80 guests with a champagne dinner at a posh hotel.
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