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May 07, 2025
 

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FAMILY REGISTRY

A survey by a private group found that 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.
JAPAN
May 6, 2025
About 30% of those in de facto marriages refuse to marry over surname change
Nearly half of such people are willing to file if a system allowing married spouses to use different surnames is introduced.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers speak to reporters in parliament on Wednesday after submitting a bill in the Lower House to allow married couples to retain different surnames.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 30, 2025
CDP submits bill proposal on separate surnames, but challenges remain
Japan remains the only country in the world that forces couples to use one surname after marriage.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Yoshihiko Noda addresses a rally calling for the introduction of a system allowing married couples to choose whether to use the same or different family names on Feb. 26 at parliament.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 8, 2025
Some 44% of Japanese lawmakers back selective dual surname system
The figure far outstrips the 1% who said that the country should maintain its current same surname system.
Naturalized Japanese citizens from Taiwan will be able to list Taiwan as their place of origin in their family register instead of China from May.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 17, 2025
Naturalized Japanese can soon list Taiwan as original nationality
Since Japan does not officially recognize Taiwan as a country, those from the self-ruled island had been required to list China as their original nationality.
A birth notification document issued by Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Family registers, which record and certify citizens' familial relationships from birth to death, currently do not include the phonetic readings of names.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 2, 2025
Family registers to incorporate phonetic readings of names from end-May
Citizens who wish to register readings that differ from those listed on certificates of residence must notify municipal governments within a year.
The sought ¥21.3 billion will be used for making the revised family register law widely known to the public and setting up call centers to receive questions from the public.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 27, 2024
¥21.3 billion sought to help with adding phonetic readings in family registers
The planned funds will be used for making the revision widely known to the public and setting up call centers to receive questions from the public.
Masahiko Uotani (third from left), head of Keidanren's diversity promotion committee, hands its proposal on a separate surname system for married couples to members of a lawmaker group focused on realizing such a system, in June.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Sep 24, 2024
Japan's top business lobby group pushes for separate surnames option
In response to Keidanren's push, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party held internal discussions on the issue for the first time in about three years.
A Japanese high court decision on Wednesday touched on the contentious issue of whether transgender people need to undergo surgery in order to have their gender changed in official records.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 10, 2024
Japan high court backs gender status change without surgery
The development is likely to put more pressure on the government to revise the contentious 2003 law on gender dysphoria.
Japan is the only country with a law requiring married couples to adopt the same surname. In 95% of cases, it is women who take their husband's name.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 7, 2024
The land where single surnames are the only option
The business lobby recently joined calls for Japan to accept separate surnames after marriage. What, then, is standing in the way of change? Politics.
Lawyers Kazuyuki Minami (left) and Masafumi Yoshida (right) representing a transgender woman show off signs that say "unconstitutional" and "sent back" to a lower court, during a news conference Wednesday in Tokyo after a Supreme Court decision.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 25, 2023
Supreme Court hands down landmark decision on transgender rights
A law requiring sterilization surgery to change a person's legal gender has been declared “unconstitutional."
Kanata Kimoto had his womb and ovaries removed in Thailand when he was 24, so he could have his legal gender status changed. Now he questions whether such an invasive and costly procedure was necessary.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 22, 2023
Calls grow to abolish Japan's surgery requirement for gender change
Between 2004 and 2022, a total of 11,919 people had their gender changed through the law in Japan.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 27, 2021
Progress in the government's bid to digitalize public services
One woman found that re-entering Japanese society as a citizen was more difficult than trying to enter British society as a foreign national.
EDITORIALS
Sep 4, 2018
Review the Civil Code rules over paternity denial
The problem of people lacking family registry must be eliminated, and legal hurdles that need to be fixed to resolve the problem should be quickly addressed.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 9, 2017
Without an official father, kids can be stateless
On Nov. 29, the Kobe District Court dismissed a suit against the state filed by a woman in her 60s who claimed that the law that allows only men to deny paternity of a child is unconstitutional, since it discriminates against women. She said the law meant she was unable to register her daughter as the...
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 2017
Fill the family registry void
The government needs to pull out all the stops in making sure every Japanese is listed in the family registry system.
Why are rice prices still high in Japan?
Amid shortages, the price of a 5-kilogram bag of rice during the week of April 14 was ¥4,220.
Dollar’s decline is fueling dislocations across Asian currencies
A worker counts U.S. dollar banknotes at a currency exchange office in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2022.
Tariff talks with U.S. seen influencing Japan's Upper House election
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks to reporters about Japan-U.S. tariff negotiations at his official residence on Saturday.
Japan and India to set up new consultation defense cooperation framework
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani (right) stands alongside his Indian counterpart, Rajnath Singh, during a ceremonial reception in New Delhi on Monday.
About 30% of those in de facto marriages refuse to marry over surname change
A survey by a private group found that 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.
The drive for luxury: Aston Martin Asia's president explains the desire for more
While for Aston Martin, it’s all about delivering luxury, their regional president for Asia Gregory Adams' start in the auto industry in Japan was far more humble.
Why are rice prices still high in Japan?
Amid shortages, the price of a 5-kilogram bag of rice during the week of April 14 was ¥4,220.
Plug and Play wants to help Japanese startups go global
Phillip Vincent (right), Japan CEO of Plug and Play, and Ma Jingqian, head of ventures, at Plug and Play's Tokyo office, last month
Kotomi Li: 'I refuse to choose death'
Since 2017, Kotomi Li has won some of Japan’s top literary awards and built a formidable career in the face of persistent online harassment. “Authors are tenacious creatures to begin with,” she says.
Want to see the future at the Osaka Expo? Get in line.
“‘Future of life,’ by Ishiguro,” the World Expo pavilion by roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, displays humanlike androids.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan
By Hanako Lowry

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