Photo/Illutration Masakazu Tokura, chairman of Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on June 10. (Hiroaki Kimura)

Japan’s largest business lobby pressed the government to revise legislation “as soon as possible” to allow married couples to use separate surnames, saying the current system is leaving women at a one-sided disadvantage in their professional lives. 

Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) said on June 10 that a growing number of women continue to use their maiden names at workplaces but cannot sign contracts or open bank accounts under those names because they legally took their husbands’ names.

The Civil Code says, “A husband and wife shall adopt the surname of the husband or wife in accordance with that which is decided at the time of marriage.”

In 95 percent of cases, wives change their family names to that of their husbands’.

“Women shoulder a disproportionate burden of inconvenience and disadvantage in their daily and professional lives due to the change in their family names,” Keidanren said in its proposal.

“We expect that the government will submit bills to amend (related laws) as soon as possible and that the Diet will hold constructive discussions.”

Discussions on the introduction of a dual-surname system have been stalled partly because some lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party remain staunchly opposed.

(This article was written by Hiroaki Kimura and Sawa Okabayashi.)

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