Banno Misaki (26), who lives in Kobe, Japan, and her husband (26) held their wedding in Hawaii in the United States in September last year. A wedding in Hawaii may evoke an image of a lavish ceremony for the wealthy, but for the Banno couple it was a simple ceremony attended only by a single pastor who acted as the intermediary. The reason they held a lonely wedding far away in Hawaii without family or friends was to keep their premarital surnames in Japan, which does not allow separate surnames for spouses. It was a decision made not out of a wish for Hawaii but to protect their names.

On the 8th, to mark International Women's Day, the Mainichi Shimbun introduced the stories of people in Japan, where debate over introducing the ‘optional separate surnames for spouses system’ is stalled, who are holding weddings overseas to keep their surnames. For those who, like the Banno couple, go abroad to maintain their premarital surnames and have a ‘legal wedding’, that is, a civil marriage, Hawaii is the preferred destination. The paper reported that Hawaii allows anyone 18 or older who is unmarried to marry regardless of nationality, and that the threshold for a civil marriage is lower than in other places that impose conditions such as years of residence.

The Civil Code of Japan compels spouses to have the same surname. Article 750 provides that ‘a married couple shall bear, as determined at the time of marriage, the surname of the husband or the wife,’ but cases in which the husband takes the wife's surname are extremely rare. In most cases, women follow the husband surname when filing the marriage registration. In response, some women advocacy groups in Japan and parts of the opposition have pushed for legislation to introduce an optional separate surnames system, which would allow spouses to use different surnames. However, among those elected in the House of Representatives election held in February, nearly half, 47%, oppose the system, making its introduction difficult for now.

Banno, a graduate student at Kyoto University who researches ancient Roman history, chose to spend the time and money to marry in Hawaii in order to keep her surname because of her career in academia. In papers and degrees, conference presentations, and international networks, names are inevitably important. The paper added that changing the surname could lead to past achievements being treated as those of another person. If a premarital surname is used only as a common-use name, there is also concern that entry to other countries for conferences may be denied due to inconsistency with a passport that follows the family register name.

Using the premarital surname as a common-use name is the approach being advanced by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, which would allow the premarital surname to be used in daily life even if the legal surname is that of the husband. The Mainichi reported that Takaichi recently instructed cabinet ministers to consider a measure that would allow women to list only their premarital surnames, rather than listing both the husband surname and the premarital surname, on official certificates and the like. On this proposal, Banno told the Mainichi, “It is a matter of identity. I do not want to turn the surname that has been with me for many years into a former name,” adding, “It is not that I want to have two names.”

Even if, like Banno, a couple is legally recognized as married overseas, problems still remain because the Japanese family register system does not recognize separate surnames in law. The Mainichi reported that in a lawsuit filed to confirm the separate-surname marriage of film director Soda Kazuhiro and his wife Kashiwagi Kiyoko, who married in the United States in 2022 while keeping their premarital surnames, the Tokyo District Court held that the marriage contracted overseas ‘also takes valid effect in our country,’ but did not allow the marital relationship to be entered in the family register under separate surnames. The application by the Banno couple to register their separate-surname marriage likewise received a ‘non-processing disposition’.

In addition, many government offices and insurance companies process such couples as de facto unions, saying, ‘We cannot recognize you as a married couple on the basis of overseas certificates.’ There is no guarantee that they will be treated as legal spouses when receiving hospital treatment for illness or injury.

Because of these inconveniences, the Banno couple decided to use the life partner system operated by Kobe City. This is a scheme in which the local government certifies a de facto partnership. Using it makes it possible to be treated as a married couple at hospitals. Banno told the Mainichi, “Overseas marriage and the life partner system are puzzle pieces that fill the gaps in the current system.”

However, the Mainichi reported that a civil marriage overseas is not open to everyone; one must be prepared for substantial expenses for round-trip airfare and living costs, and it is not an option without a certain level of language ability. Yoshii Minako, an associate professor at Mukogawa Women's University, described ‘legal weddings’ to the Mainichi as “a practical countermeasure that the parties have no choice but to choose in response to Japan's legal system, which has been at a standstill for many years.” She went on to say, “Overseas marriage can only be described as a privileged option,” and “A right to form a family that ought to be guaranteed equally is being determined by individual conditions. It is a serious inequality that violates equality under the law.”