The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) submitted a bill to the House of Representatives April 30 to revise the Civil Code to introduce a selective surname system for married Japanese couples. The fellow opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPFP) and Nippon Ishin (the Japan Innovation Party) have also announced plans to submit separate bills.
The CDP's bill stipulates that the surname of children — a focal point of the separate surname issue — will be decided when couples get married. In 2022, a bill jointly submitted by the CDP, the DPFP, the Japanese Communist Party and others had stated that the surname of children would be "decided at birth" in consideration of circumstances faced by each couple. DPFP leader Yuichiro Tamaki and others, however, have raised concerns about the possibility of siblings having different surnames.
by SkyInJapan