News No dual surnames for married couples in Japan

Another lawsuit challenging Japan's requirement that married couples use the same surname is entering a crucial stage, with a common-law couple in Sapporo arguing that the current system violates their constitutional rights. The couple say that the provisions of the Civil Code and the Family Register Act (戸籍法) violate Article 13 of the Constitution, which guarantees respect for individuals.

On 29 July, the Sapporo District Court questioned the couple for the first time. Ahead of the hearing, statements from 920 men and women who also questioned why one partner should have to change their surname upon marriage were submitted to the court. Sapporo residents Kiyotaka Nishi, 34, and Mana Sato, 39, filed their lawsuit in March 2024. On the same day, another 10 plaintiffs brought a similar case before the Tokyo District Court.

The government has asked that the claims be dismissed, citing Supreme Court rulings from 2015 and 2021 that found the current system constitutional. It argued that even taking changes in public attitudes and other circumstances into account, there were no grounds for overturning the earlier Grand Bench decision.

Sato and Nishi, both medical professionals, met in 2015 at the hospital where they worked and married in November 2019. For Nishi, marriage meant a legal bond registered by submitting a marriage notification. But Sato said she had felt anxious that by taking the surname "Nishi" she would no longer be herself. Before they married, Sato told Nishi several times that she did not want to change her surname, but they did not have an opportunity to discuss it in depth. Eventually, she would get used to the Nishi name, her husband thought. Contrary to that expectation, Sato became exhausted both mentally and physically. After changing her surname, Sato was not allowed to use her former surname at work. As her feeling that she was "no longer herself" intensified, she was diagnosed with an adjustment disorder in April 2020 and was forced to leave her job.

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