Photo/Illutration Ichiro Aisawa speaks at a meeting of the Liberal Democratic Party’s working team on the family name system at the party headquarters on Feb. 12. (Taishi Sasayama)

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party remained sharply divided over whether to let married couples use separate surnames even as an intra-party panel resumed discussions.

“We want to continue efforts to come up with a conclusion while caring for both diversifying values and traditional values that Japan must protect,” Ichiro Aisawa, chairman of the working team on the family name system, told participants at a Feb. 12 meeting.

About 50 lawmakers were in attendance.

Yosei Ide, secretary-general of a group of lawmakers that backs the dual-surname system, said the LDP must meet the wishes of those who cherish their original family names.

Opponent Sanae Takaichi told reporters after the meeting that she underlined the significance of the family register system, in which husband and wife are required to select a single surname.

She said inconveniences in administrative procedures can be eliminated by expanding opportunities where couples who legally adopted a single surname can still use their original family names.

The working team only summarized issues on Feb. 12 without going into specific legal revisions.

The panel will hold a meeting once a week, but it is unclear whether a consensus can be formed.

Aisawa has said the panel must not try to make a rash decision on the family name issue.

However, an LDP lawmaker said opposition legislation in favor of the dual-surname system might pass the Lower House if the party mishandles the issue.

The ruling coalition of the LDP and Komeito lost its majority in the Diet chamber in an election in October.

A veteran lawmaker said the opposition camp is taking advantage of the division among LDP lawmakers over the family name issue for political purposes.

In 2022, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Democratic Party for the People and three other opposition parties submitted a bill to the Lower House to revise the Civil Code and introduce a dual-surname system.

The CDP is considering sponsoring a similar piece of legislation with other opposition parties.

Executive Deputy President Kiyomi Tsujimoto, who heads the CDP’s office for promoting the dual-surname system, said on Feb. 12 that the party must obtain support from a broad range of parties for the envisaged bill.

However, other opposition parties have different stances on some issues.

Shinji Nagatomo, secretary-general of the DPP’s office for gender equality promotion, said the party essentially supports the dual-surname system after the office’s meeting on Feb. 12.

Even so, the party has yet to agree whether the family name of children must be decided when they are born or married, for example, he said.

Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), which was not a party to the joint opposition bill in 2022, has both supporters and opponents within the party.

(This article was written by Taishi Sasayama, Nozomi Matsui and Tsuneo Sasai.)

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