A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Women's rights advocates in Japan have struggled for decades for the right of married couples to have different last names. Japan is the only country where they're required to use one surname, which is nearly always the man's. Now proponents of change are trying a new tactic to make their point. NPR's Anthony Kuhn report from Tokyo.
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Noriko Uchiyama (ph) is a branding consultant. She says that some family-owned companies in Japan have been around for centuries.
NORIKO UCHIYAMA: (Through interpreter) The reason Japan has so many enduring companies is because they had families as their backgrounds. In Japan, family names have become brands.
KUHN: She says that for her and other Japanese businesswomen, taking their husband's surname after marriage often means losing the family brand and their sense of self.
UCHIYAMA: (Through interpreter) I thought, why on Earth did I have to throw away my original name just because I married my husband? I felt really uncomfortable about changing my entire identity.
KUHN: In 2019, Uchiyama established a group that helps women who inherit or run family-owned businesses.
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KUHN: Shinto priests still preside at some traditional Japanese weddings. They hark back to a time before the late 1800s, when only nobles and Samurai were allowed to use surnames in public. Japanese couples have sued their government for the right to use different surnames, but all of them have lost. The U.N. has repeatedly advised Japan to allow separate surnames, and surveys show most Japanese are in favor of it.
Activist Naho Ida formed a group called the Think Name Project to push for different surnames. Ida's first marriage, which ended in divorce, was into a family that insisted that she change her name, visit her in-laws on holidays and serve them and her husband.
NAHO IDA: (Through interpreter) I was expected to work while my husband sat and drank. After that, I got a lot of sexual harassment from male relatives. I felt that I was looked down upon because I was the youngest and the lowest in rank.
KUHN: Ida blames religious and conservative groups for blocking change and preserving patriarchy. Conservatives insist that allowing different surnames could lead to the collapse of Japanese society. So Ida turned to Hiroshi Yoshida, an economist at Tohoku University, to try to focus public attention on the issue. Yoshida took Japan's most common family name, which is Sato. He calculated that as women marry into the Sato family, the number of Satos increases at a rate of 0.83% a year.
HIROSHI YOSHIDA: (Through interpreter) In about 500 years, Satos will account for 100% of the population. But this calculation is a technical mental experiment, which I just thought up for the purpose of visualization.
KUHN: This hypothetical Satoization (ph) of Japan could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view. Yoshida says that like most Japanese, he personally has nothing against Satos.
YOSHIDA: (Through interpreter) However, if Satos account for 100% of the population, it means that other family names will disappear as well. So I think it is a future that many people would like to avoid, if possible.
KUHN: Besides, he adds, if everyone is a Sato, the only way to tell them apart will be to use their first names. Activist Naho Ida says she asked Yoshida to do this study to send a message to men who think the surname issue has nothing to do with them.
IDA: (Through interpreter) I wanted them to realize that there's a chance that the name of your family, which you think is so important, might disappear, too.
KUHN: Ida made her point. Yoshida's mental exercise was covered by Japanese and foreign media. But Yoshida says the point he wants to make is that allowing different surnames could ease women's concerns about marriage and increase Japan's birth rate, or at least slow its decline. He says the main problem facing Japan's population is not Satoization, but extinction. He predicts that by the year 3533, Japan's population will be down to one. And you can guess what that last person's surname will probably be.
Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Tokyo. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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