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Whose
Family Name Upon Marriage in Japan?
by
Jeremy D. Morley
Under
the Civil Code, either the husband or wife must change their family
name to be married legally. Usually it is the wife who does so.
The history of obliging a married couple to bear a single family
name is relatively recent. It was only after the 1868 Meiji
Restoration that families were systematically registered under one
family name.
Before
the Meiji Era, having a surname was a privilege of the samurai
class. Ordinary citizens, such as farmers and merchants, were banned
from using family names, although some privately used self-claimed
family names.
In
1870, the Meiji government allowed all citizens to use family names,
and in the following year, the government enacted the Census
Registration Law for levying taxes and for the draft. The new law
turned the lineal family, known as "ie," into one unit of
registration. So even if several families of the same ancestor lived
separately, they were registered under the name of one ie. The ie
concept as the basis of the family system was further strengthened
by establishment of the Civil Code in 1898.
Under
the ie system, the eldest male in a family line was vested with
exclusive rights, including the right to approve a marriage, decide
the place of residence of married family members, and manage and
inherit the family property.
The Civil Code stipulated that a wife enters the ie of a husband by
marriage and bears the husband's family name. Wives had no legal
rights over family matters, such as parental or property rights.
Marriage in the Meiji Era literally meant an absorption of a wife by
a husband's family.
The postwar Constitution, enacted in 1946, abolished the system of
marriage approval by the family heads and stipulated that a marriage
takes effect solely by agreement between a man and a woman. In line
with the Constitution, the Civil Code was also revised in 1947 to
provide that a married couple could choose either the husband's or
wife's name on an equal basis, thereby abolishing the ie system
where a wife entered her husband's family.
The Census Registration Law, which placed the lineal family as one
unit of registration in the prewar era, was revised to make the
nuclear family one unit. However, the legacy of the prewar ie notion
remained in the hearts of Japanese culture.
In recent years there have been calls to revise the Civil Code to
permit separate family names for married people. The issue gained
momentum when Japan ratified the U.N. Convention for Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1985, and enacted the
Equal Employment Opportunity Law in the following year. In 1996, the
Justice Ministry's Legislative Council recommended that a married
couple be given the choice as to whether they change their family
name to either the husband's or wife's, or keep their family names
separate, but the proposal failed because of opposition from
conservative lawmakers.
Nonetheless, an increasing number of women are using their maiden
names in business and socially. Official use of maiden names is
becoming increasingly acceptable in the workplace. Indeed, in 2001
the Japanese government presented a policy to allow the use of
maiden names by central government employees.
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Articles on Japanese family law by
Jeremy D. Morley:
Japanese Family
Law - or The
Lack Thereof!
Some Notes on Child Support in
Japan
Recognition of Japanese Divorces
Japanese Family Courts
Family
Registration Law of Japan
(戸籍法 koseki ho)
Notification of Divorce Form (kyogi rikon todoke)
Japan Civil Code
民法 Book
4, Relatives
Horei Law
U.S. Secretary Thompson Statement
Wood v. Wood
Japanese Custody Law
Japan and Child Abduction
Japanese Cases on Family Law
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