Only in rare cases in Japan does a couple uses the wife’s surname, particularly if she is an only child and there is pressure to carry on the family name, or if it benefits them financially.
In August last year, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women urged Tokyo to “take immediate action to amend the Civil Code” and drop the one-surname requirement, calling the provision “discriminatory.”
Akiko Orita has been married for more than 10 years, but because she did not change her name at marriage, she is classified in town hall records as “unregistered wife” of her husband, Yusuke Doi, who also supports the cause.
“I don’t want to have to change my name,” the 35-year-old assistant professor at Keio University said. “Everyone should have a right to choose.”
The Democrats have also sought to give the right to vote in local elections to 420,000 mostly Korean permanent residents in Japan and some Taiwanese. Most are descendants of wartime slave laborers who were forcibly brought to the country during the 1910 to 1945 Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula.
Despite being born in Japan, living there for decades and paying taxes, many such ethnic Koreans, known as “zainichi Korean,” chose not to take Japanese citizenship to retain their sense of ethnic identity or as a form of protest at Japan having stripped their families of their nationality after World War II.
This disqualifies them from voting.
Democratic leaders say the proposed reform is intended to redress the suffering historically inflicted on the Koreans. Officials are still debating whether to include another 490,000 foreign permanent residents, mostly Chinese, but also Brazilians, Filipinos and Peruvians, in the bill.
The bill has yet to be drafted, but it has already stirred up fears among some Japanese that it might influence local votes to undermine Japan’s national interest and security. Some say Koreans and Chinese residents may move en masse to constituencies overseeing disputed areas to influence decisions in a way that would weaken Japanese claims to several small islands between Japan and South Korea or China.
Right-wing activists and conservative lawmakers have repeatedly rallied in Tokyo against any moves to grant foreign residents suffrage, saying only those who have obtained nationality should be allowed to vote.
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