MARRIED COUPLES’ SAME SURNAME ISSUE IN JAPANESE FAMILY LAW
2023, 101, No. 1
Publication date
Publishing model
License type
Field
Discipline
Language of publication
Downloads
PDF 1 MB
Number of views:319
Number of downloads:67
Crossref citations:0
Altmetric score:0
Abstract
Despite the traditional postulates of jurisprudence regarding the necessity to introduce flawless bills, each legal system struggles with issues which arouse controversy and become the subject of a lively political and legal debate. Even if the controversy affects millions of people and their private lives, the decision to solve it is limited by government policy. For example, this pattern is reflected in the married couples’ same surname issue in Japanese Family Law. Japanese courts investigated it yet did not provide any binding solution. The media have also increasingly raised this problem as an example of a private law defect requiring a fundamental change in the near future. Still, public awareness of the legal controversy is insufficient to overcome it. Even though a large part of Japanese society supports the reform of the married couples’ same surname system, the government protects it as an embodiment of Japan’s legal tradition and a symbol of family unity. Undoubtedly, the dispute regarding the need to revise Family Law went beyond the legal debate and became a significant political and social issue in the last three decades. Unfortunately, Western legal scholarship is still unaware of this vivid example of the 21st-century rivalry between the liberal/individual and the conservative/collective views in one of the most distinguished private law systems.
Keywords:
Bibliography
Anbo K., Kempō to Kazoku Hō: Fūfu Bessei sei o Daizai ni (Constitution and Family Law: About the Spouses’ Separate Surnames System), “Hōsei Ronsō” 1999, 36 (1), pp. 68-81
Honda Y., Itō K., Kokka ga Naze Kazoku ni Kanshō Suru no ka: Hōan, Seisaku no Haigo ni Aru Mono (Why Does the Nation Intervene in the Family?: A Contribution to Law and Politics), Tokyo: Ao Yumi Sha Library, 2017
Idota H., Edo Jidai no Tsuma no Uji (Wife’s Surname in the Edo Era), “Nara Hōgakukai Zasshi” 2000, Vol. 12 (3-4), pp. 67–84
Inubushi Y., Ishii M., Tsuneoka F., Matsuo T., Shinzoku Sōzoku Hō (Relatives and Succession Law), Tokyo: Kobundo, 2020
Ishii R., Mimpōten no Hensan (Drafting of the Civil Code), Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1979
Kamiyama M., Fūfu Bessei – Dōnyū e no Sampi to Seido Riyō Kibō no Kitei Yōin (Spouses’ Separate Surname System – Main Premises for its Application and Arguments for and Against its Introduction), (in:) Tōhoku Daigakuin Kyōikugaku Kenkyūka (ed.), Tōhoku Daigaku Kyōiku Gakubu Kyōikugaku Jisshū Shakai Chōsa no Riron to Jissen Hōkokusho, Sendai 2019, pp. 66-74
Kitahara R., Fūfu Bessei wa Naze “Kirarawareru” ka? (Why Are Separate Surnames “Disliked”?), “Chūō Daigaku Shakai Kagaku Kenkyūjo Nempō” 2016, 21, pp. 243-257
Kondō K., Fūfu no Uji ni Kan Suru Oboegaki, ichi (Notes on the Surnames of Spouses, part 1), “Miyagi Kyōiku Daigaku Kiyō” 2015, vol. 49, pp. 354-368
Kuroda J., Fūfu no Uji ni Kan Suru – Kōsatsu: Ko no Uji no Henkō o Chūshin ni (About the Surnames of Spouses – Divagations: Emphasis on the Aspect of Changing the Child’s Surname), “Kokushikan Hōgaku” 2018, vol. 51, pp. 227-256
Motoyama A., Aotake M., Habu K., Mizuno T., Kazoku Hō (Family Law), Tokyo: Nihon Hyōronsha, 2021
Murakami K., Nihon Kindai Kazoku Hō Shiron (Debate on the History of Contemporary Japanese Family Law), Tokyo: Hōritsu Bunkasha, 2020
ЕЊta O., Nihonjin no Sei Myoji Namae: Jinmei ni Kizamareta Rekishi (Japanese Names, Surnames and Family Surnames: History Engraved in a Human), Tokyo: Kabushiki Kaisha Yoshikawa KoМ„bunkan, 2012
Ōta Y., Ishino Y., Myōji ni Kan Suru Taido to Jiga Dōitsusei, Kazoku Aidentiti, oyobi Dentōteki Kazokukan to no Kanren: Daigakusei ni okeru Myōji no Yakuwari to sono Seisa no Shinrigakuteki Kenkyū (Relationships between Own Surname and Self-Identification, Family Identification and Traditionalist View of the Family: Psychological Research on Students Regarding the Role of Surnames Depending on Gender), “Shimane Daigaku Kyōiku Gakubu Kiyō” 2010, vol. 44, pp. 89-103
Ninomiya S., Kazoku Hō (Family Law), Tokyo: Shinhogaku Library, 2019 (5th ed.)
Piegzik M. A., Civil Code controversy in Japan, 1889-1892, PhD thesis defended at the Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics of the University of Wrocław, Wrocław 2022
Sugita Y., Fūfu Bessei Hanketsu ni Tai Suru Kōsatsu (Considerations on the Judgment on the System of Separate Surnames of Spouses), “Kyūshū Daigaku Hōseigakukai” 2018, vol. 12, pp. 19-33
https://doi.org/10.1002/cala.30928
Tomita T., Fūfu Bessei Ron Sono Ato: 30-nen no Kiseki (After the Dispute over the Spouses’ Same Surname System: 30 Years of Its Course), “Gyōsei Shakai Ronshū” 2020, vol. 32 (4), pp. 169-212
Tomonaga T., Kempō dai 24-jō to Kazoku Hō no Kadai (The Issue of Article 24 of the Constitution and Family Law), “Kogakkan Daigaku Nihongaku Rongyō” 2017, vol. 7, pp. 163-184
Tsuneoka F., Kazoku Hō (Family Law), Tokyo: Shinseisha, 2020
Yanagi K. (ed.), Kazoku Hō (Family Law), Tokyo: Saganoshoin, 2020 (4th ed.)
Other articles from the issue
Table of Contents
- agricultural lawsustainable food systemscommon agricultural policyagricultural activity
SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS IN THE LIGHT OF THE LEGAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY
- spatial planningagricultural landchange in land useeconomic needs of the municipality
THE ECONOMIC NEEDS OF THE MUNICIPALITY IN THE PROCESS OF CHANGE IN LAND USE FROM AGRICULTURAL TO NON-AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES
Similar publications
Table of Contents
- agricultural lawsustainable food systemscommon agricultural policyagricultural activity
SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS IN THE LIGHT OF THE LEGAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS OF THE COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY
- spatial planningagricultural landchange in land useeconomic needs of the municipality
THE ECONOMIC NEEDS OF THE MUNICIPALITY IN THE PROCESS OF CHANGE IN LAND USE FROM AGRICULTURAL TO NON-AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES