Post: #1

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/de...r-surnames

Quote:Court decision is a setback for campaigners who argued 19th-century law violates civil rights and in practice forces women to take their husband’s name

Japan’s supreme court has ruled that a 19th-century law forcing married couples to use the same surname – almost always that of the husband – does not violate the constitution.

The court’s ruling on Wednesday will be seen as a setback for women’s rights in Japan, just as the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, pushes for a greater role for women in the workplace to boost economic growth.

In a minor victory, however, the country’s top court said that a second legal provision preventing women from remarrying for six months after they divorce violates the constitution’s commitment to gender equality. But the court said that a remarriage ban on women of up to 100 days was reasonable, according to Kyodo News.

The same-name ruling came in response to a lawsuit by five women who argued the requirement, as stipulated in the 1896 civil code, violates married couples’ civil rights.

While the law does not stipulate which name married couples should adopt, in practice women take their husband’s name in 96% of cases – a reflection, critics, say of Japan’s male-dominated society.

One of the plaintiffs, Kaori Oguni, said before the ruling: “By losing your surname … you’re being made light of, you’re not respected … It’s as if part of your self vanishes.”

‘It’s unconstitutional’: Kaori Oguni speaks out before the ruling
Oguni and four other women launched their legal challenge in 2011, seeking damages of 6m yen (£33,000) for the emotional distress and practical inconvenience of having to take their husband’s name.

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The attempt to have the law deemed unconstitutional encountered opposition from conservative politicians and commentators, who argued that allowing couples to have different surnames would damage the traditional family unit.

The law reflects the traditional view that marriages in Japan are unions between families, not individuals. During the Meiji era (1868-1912), when the law was introduced, it was common for a woman to leave her family to become part of her husband’s family.

“Names are the best way to bind families,” Masaomi Takanori, a constitutional scholar, told NHK public television in the run-up to the verdict. “Allowing different surnames risks destroying social stability, the maintenance of public order and the basis for social welfare.”

In practice, many women continue to use their maiden names at work and their legal, married surname in official documents. They include the internal affairs minister, Sanae Takaichi.

Oguni said: “If changing surnames is so easy, why don’t more men do it? The system is one that says, basically, if you’re not willing to change, you shouldn’t be getting married.”

The issue has divided public opinion. A poll by the liberal Asahi Shimbun newspaper found that 52% of respondents believed couples should have the right to choose, while 34% opposed the move. If given the option, more than 70% said they would adopt a single family name.

Wednesday’s decision means that the only option open to couples who wish to use separate surnames is not to register their marriages. People in common-law marriages, however, encounter complications in inheritance and parental rights.

While it is not directly related to the name issue, the plaintiffs were hoping that Abe’s quest to raise the profile of women in the workplace would help their cause.

Japan is thought to be one of only a few industrialised countries where it is illegal for married couples to have different surnames.

A justice ministry panel recommended in 1996 that the same-name rule be abolished and that the waiting time for remarriage be cut to 100 days, but the change met fierce opposition from conservative MPs, who condemned it as an attack on family values and social cohesion.

The UN committee on the elimination of discrimination against women has also called on Japan to revise the laws.

The court’s ruling on remarrying came after a woman who divorced her violent husband said the law had caused her mental anguish by preventing her from remarrying when she wanted to.

The law bans women from remarrying until six months after divorce in case there is confusion over the paternity of children who are conceived shortly before or after the divorce. But critics argue that the law is outdated, given the accuracy of modern pregnancy and paternity testing.

Post: #2

Increasing Japanese women in the workforce will definitely help their graying population and national fertility.

It has worked in every advanced country

WIA

Post: #3

Quote:The court’s ruling on Wednesday will be seen as a setback for women’s rights in Japan, just as the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, pushes for a greater role for women in the workplace to boost economic growth.

Thank you, WIA, for pointing out how foolish this is for Abe. He's so desperate for a workforce without having to bring in immigrants that he doesn't realize his short term workforce solution will actually make things worse in the long term.

Quote:The same-name ruling came in response to a lawsuit by five women who argued the requirement, as stipulated in the 1896 civil code, violates married couples’ civil rights.

While the law does not stipulate which name married couples should adopt, in practice women take their husband’s name in 96% of cases – a reflection, critics, say of Japan’s male-dominated society.

One of the plaintiffs, Kaori Oguni, said before the ruling: “By losing your surname … you’re being made light of, you’re not respected … It’s as if part of your self vanishes.”

Yes. Yes, that's the point. Two become one. One household, one wallet, one family, one life (represented by the children that you two will make and can only make together). If you're not ready to give up your selfishness and come to terms with that, you're probably not ready to be married. Which is fine, perhaps marriage isn't for everyone, but stop trying to have your cake and eat it too--that's why the divorce rate is so high in America.

Post: #4

Women are being treated as chattel and sex slaves in many parts of the world and the UN is whining about Japan requiring married couples to have the same surname. Jesus fucking Christ.

Post: #5

Post: #6

Every time I read an article about female 'liberation' in Japan, I only end up getting proven correct how the Anglosphere wants to turn Japan into a Far East copy of itself.

Unfortunately for the gynocentric Anglosphere, the Anglosphere had gone full wanker since Victorian England; thankfully, Japan caught on, this time around.

Post: #7

Personally, I see the law as unnecessary.
As a potential spouse, a woman can choose to take my name or keep her father's name.
Her choice will either be a red flag or not.

(Meandering 'Deep Thought': Some laws keep us from seeing red flags we should see on our own.)

Addendum: Yeah, Japan is different, blah blah, but these red flags signal things from poor individual character traits to general female hamstering, both which transcend cultures.

Post: #8

So, when will this movement start here in the US? 20yrs from now, maybe? I don't think it'll be anytime in the near future.

Post: #9

There are other red flags you could use Sombro.

This is great news for Japan, I wish we had laws like this here. A family name is a family name, and by not taking it you're ruining the family name. So accept my last name or fuck off.

Post: #10

I was screwing around on twitter yesterday instead of working when I saw this tweet that's making its way around the Japanese twitter world. It had thousands of likes and retweets. A woman was saying,

"Whenever I hear someone call me by my husband's name, I think to myself, "I'm really married," and I blush. Is it my imagination, or do wives who keep their own name always seem so unhappy?"

They're not perfect by any means, and they've got their own sets of flaws that American women don't have, but I really do love Japanese women.

Post: #11

I was fortunate enough be be in the Japanese workplace at one time in my life, like a foreigner looking into something that was never supposed to be shown to the outside world. I miss the women in the workplace who made tea, looked good everyday, gave hand massages on demand, and poured all the beer at the izakaya every night.

However to look from another perspective if I were a Japanese guy married to a Japanese woman in Japan I would never want her in this workforce. There is no such answer she can give as "no thanks I will skip the izakaya tonight." She has to go and pour beer for other men until 11pm. She is not your wife, she is the wife of the corporation until she gets home.

Post: #12

Tokyo Joe's wifes name WILL BE Yuko T. Joe