Some women in Japan are choosing not to walk down the aisle—and not because they haven’t met the right person or don’t believe in marriage. These women simply don’t want to change their last name to match their husband’s, a requirement for a legal marriage in the Asian nation.

A group of women are hoping to change that. Five Japanese women filed suit against the government for being forced to change their surnames after marrying, violating Japan’s constitution, which sees men and women as equals. The women are demanding compensation, Reuters reports.

In order to legally register a marriage, both partners must have the same surname, according to an 1896 Japanese law. A man can change his name to match his wife’s, but, according to government figures, 96 percent of the time, it’s the woman who changes her name.

“By losing your surname...you’re being made light of, you’re not respected.... It’s as if part of your self vanishes,” Kaori Oguni, one of the women suing, told Reuters. She took her husband’s name when they married but uses her maiden name professionally.

Taking a husband’s name after marriage has long been debated among women in Japan and across Europe and the U.S. Some women, like Oguni, feel that taking on their husband’s name erases their identity or indicates that they are subordinate. Others feel that it’s simply a gesture of family unity and that the last names women carry before marriage belonged to their fathers anyway.

While taking the husband’s last name is common practice in the U.K. and the U.S., it’s not mandatory. In the U.S., roughly 20 percent of women married in recent years kept their maiden names with another 10 percent choosing an alteration, like a hyphenated name, according to analysis from The New York Times. In countries like France, Chile, and Belgium, women legally retain their birth names regardless of marriage, although they may choose to use their husband’s name socially.

For women in Japan, they’re forced to either juggle two names—one at work, and one on all their legal documents—or refrain getting married at all. Some couples choose not to register their marriages in order to keep their names, but that means they also lose out on some of the benefits married couples receive, including inheritance rights.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been a vocal advocate of women’s empowerment and gender equality, but members of his conservative party worry that altering the naming system threatens the fabric of society.

"Names are the best way to bind families,” said Masaomi Takanori, a constitutional scholar, according to Reuters. “Allowing different surnames risks destroying social stability, the maintenance of public order and the basis for social welfare.”

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the matter Dec. 16.

http://news.yahoo.com/maiden-name-ja...215126717.html