Almost 30% of people in de facto marriages in Japan have not filed for marriage registration because they or their partners do not want to change their surnames, a survey by a private group has shown.
Meanwhile, nearly half of such people are willing to file if a system allowing married spouses to use different surnames is introduced in the country, according to the survey.
As the group's earlier survey had suggested that 2% of people in their 20s to 50s in Japan are in de facto marriages, there are an estimated 587,000 people who are waiting for such a selective dual surname system to be introduced.
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