Discussion over Separate Surname Begins

Discussion over the bills for introducing selective separate surname for married couples began in Committee on Judicial Affairs of the House of Representatives on May 30th. Three opposition parties respectively proposed their own bills, none of which has achieved a majority support in the House, because ruling Liberal Democratic Party would not approve any of them. Regardless domestic and international requirements for separate surname, the Diet has been failing in guaranteeing diversity of married couples.

With decline of LDP power in the Diet after Lower House election in October 2024, the opposition parties accelerate their effort to catch the momentum for amendment of the Civil Code. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) submitted a bill in April, which included the points raised by the Legislative Council in 1996. The Democratic Party for the People (DPP) proposed their own bill that require a couple to name at their marriage the head of family register whose surname would be used for their children.

 

Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin-no Kai) takes more conservative stance. Ishin’s bill does not allow separate surname, but create “common name” in family registration, which has legal status. The LDP abandoned to submit their own bill to current session of the Diet after long internal discussion over the issue. Some conservative lawmakers, including Sanae Takaichi, argue that using common name can be an alternative to separate surname. Komeito is positive in introduction of separate surname, but thinks it is too early to conclude this issue.

 

With no perspective that any one of those three bills would pass, the Chairwoman of Committee on Judicial Affairs, Chinami Nishimura (CDPJ), decided to begin discussion on separate surnames. Of all thirty-five seats in the committee, the opposition parties have nineteen. Two out of those nineteen oppose separate surnames. There is no hope that the opposition parties will be united to pass a bill.

 

If no one bill passes the Diet by the end of current session, all those bills will be discarded or passed over to next session. The chairwoman Nishimura is supposed to be aiming at having votes on the bills to make contrast between ayes and nays clear. In a poll of Kyodo News in May, 71 percent of responders supported introduction of selective separate surname, leaving 27 percent of the opponents far behind. Even if no bill passes the Diet, it will be good enough for the opposition parties to display the LDP against majority of the people before the Upper House election in July.

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