By MARI FUJISAKI/ Staff Writer
April 19, 2023 at 07:00 JST
The Cabinet Office building in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Around 80 percent of Japanese believe that men are treated better than women in society, and nearly 40 percent want to use their original surnames after marriage, according to a Cabinet Office survey.
The gender-equality survey was conducted between Nov. 24, 2022, and Jan. 1 this year.
Questionnaires were mailed to 5,000 Japanese nationals 18 or older, and 2,847 of them, or 56.9 percent, responded. The results were published on March 14.
Only 14.7 percent of respondents said men and women are “treated equally” in society.
By contrast, 78.8 percent said men are “treated better” than women.
Asked to pick areas where men are treated better than women, 87.9 percent of respondents chose politics, followed by “socially accepted views, customs and conventions” at 81.8 percent, workplaces (64.1 percent), family life (59.8 percent), legal systems (52.3 percent), local activities, such as residents’ associations and parent-teacher associations (47.8 percent), and schools (24.5 percent).
The government has conducted the survey once every several years since 1992.
The latest survey asked questions about workstyles, household chores, domestic violence and requests for the government.
It also, for the first time, asked about giving married couples a choice on their surnames.
A total of 39.1 percent of respondents said they would want to use their original family name if their suname under the family register system changes upon marriage.
More men, at 44.2 percent, than women, at 34.7 percent, said so.
By age group, the largest percentage who wanted the surname choice was 51.8 percent in their 30s.
They were followed by 47.8 percent of respondents between 18 and 29, 45.3 percent in their 50s, and 41.5 percent in their 40s.
By contrast, only 37.4 percent of respondents in their 60s and 27.4 percent in their 70s and older wanted the option to use their original family name after marriage, highlighting the generational gap on the topic.
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