What’s in a name? In Japan, quite a lot.
The country’s Supreme Court will decide on Wednesday whether a law that requires spouses to have the same surname is constitutional. While the 19th century law doesn’t say which spouse should change their name, an overwhelming majority of women take their husband’s.
Another ruling is also due today on a second law that bars women from marrying for six months after a divorce. Women, gender equality experts, and even a UN committee, say these laws are discriminatory.
“It is a matter of identity,” said Kaori Oguni, 41, one of five people suing the government. “The law is requiring me to throw away … my family name in order to marry someone I love.”
The role of women in Japanese society is moving up the political and economic agenda. Unless the country finds ways of attracting more women into the workforce, it will struggle to emerge from economic stagnation. Government efforts to do so thus far have largely failed, due to deeply rooted cultural issues.
But experts say allowing women to keep their names would set Japan on the right path for further change.
A favorable ruling “does help working women, and recognition of their position in society — it is a very important step forward,” said Machiko Osawa, director of the Research Institute for Women and Careers at Japan Women’s University. “You should have the right to choose the name you want.”
Japan is the only major developed country that prevents couples with different surnames from registering their marriage. Oguni changed her name legally to Tangiku when she got married nine years ago, but continues to use her maiden name at work.
For Japan’s working women, “it is really cumbersome that you already have established your own position in a corporation — then suddenly because you get married, you have to change your name,” Osawa said.
There is plenty of room for improvement: roughly 65% of Japan’s women are working, which is one of the lowest rates among developed nations.
Closing Japan’s gender employment gap would add an estimated 7.1 million employees to the workforce and lift gross domestic product by as much as 13%, according to Kathy Matsui of Goldman Sachs.
Experts say the problem has been exacerbated by a lack of childcare, and the failure of companies to hire, train and promote women into senior management.
Even with monetary incentives, companies are reluctant to support women. One government program that offered a subsidy to companies for promoting women into senior positions had zero applications as of September. At least one firm has applied since then, but that’s a far cry from the 400 that were expected to apply.
The government also recently lowered its target for getting women into senior government positions to 7% from 30%.
Right now, only about 3.5% of senior government jobs are held by women. It may not sound like much, but it’s already taken over 10 years to get here. In 2003, when Japan first announced these goals, 1.6% of those posts were filled by women, according to the government.
But things may take a turn in April when new legislation takes effect. It mandates large companies, as well as the government, to set and disclose numerical targets for hiring and promoting women.