日本女性呼吁修改姓氏法：姓氏问题为职业发展带来“几多愁”

日本可能是世界上唯一一个要求配偶使用相同姓氏的国家，但是如今日本女性开始呼吁废除这条古老的法律，因为这项规定给她们的职业生涯带来了诸多困扰。

For Akiko Saikawa, the administrative nightmare began soon after she married.

对于Akiko Saikawa来说，行政噩梦在她结婚后不久开始。

The office worker from Tokyo had to go through dozens of procedures to change her name on her passport and other documents, as well updating her social media accounts. All because she had been required, by law, to change her surname as a married woman.

这位来自东京的上班族必须经历数十道程序，才能更改她的护照和其他文件上的姓名，以及更新她的社交媒体账户。这一切都是因为按照法律规定，已婚女性必须更改姓氏。

Couples in Japan are free to choose which surname to take when they marry, but in 95% of cases, it is the woman who changes her name, often with reluctance.

在日本，夫妻结婚时可以自由选择姓氏，但在95%的情况下，是女方改姓，通常是不情愿的。

"It was very time consuming and inconvenient,” Saikawa says. “But the most troublesome part was that my name on our family register changed to that of my husband. That means I have had to make it clear to employers that I want to continue being referred to by my maiden name at work.”

“这非常耗时和不方便，”Saikawa说。“但最麻烦的是，我的户籍上的姓氏变成了我丈夫的姓氏。这意味着我必须向雇主明确表示我希望在工作中继续使用我的娘家姓。”

Now attention is turning to the archaic law that forbids married couples from using separate surnames, and the almost three decades of inaction after a government panel drew up proposals to change part of a civil code first adopted in the late 1800s.

现在人们开始关注一项古老的法律，该法律禁止已婚夫妇使用不同的姓氏，而在政府小组起草了改变19世纪末启用的这部民法典部分内容的提案后，近30年来一直没有采取任何行动。

Inconvenience aside, campaigners say the insistence on using the same surname is another sign of Japan’s lack of progress on gender equality.

除了不便之外，活动人士表示，坚持使用相同的姓氏是日本在性别平等方面缺乏进展的另一个迹象。

Machiko Osawa, a professor and specialist in labour economics at Japan Women’s University, blames the lack of progress on “old-fashioned patriarchal attitudes” in the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) and among supreme court justices “who insist on supporting an antediluvian status quo”.

日本女子大学的劳动经济学教授和专家Machiko Osawa指责执政的自由民主党和最高法院法官们“坚持支持陈旧的父权主义态度”，将缺乏进展归咎于这些因素。

"Newlywed women have to waste so much time changing their names on banking accounts, credit cards, passports and all other official documents. And for those who have established themselves as professionals, being forced to change their name is a denial of what they have accomplished. It sows confusion and subordinates them to men,” Osawa says.

Osawa指出：“新婚女性必须花费很多时间在银行账户、信用卡、护照和其他官方文件上更改她们的姓名。对于那些已经在职场上建立了自己的专业形象的人来说，被迫改名是对她们所取得成就的否定。这种做法会造成混乱，并使她们屈从于男性。”

Locked out of hotel rooms

无法进入酒店房间

After years of stalling, pressure is building on the LDP, not just from rights campaigners, but also senior business leaders who say the rule is proving an obstacle to Japanese firms that do business overseas.

日本自民党多年来一直拖延，不只是受到维权活动人士的压力，也受到高级商界领袖的压力，后者表示该规定对于进行海外业务的日本公司构成了障碍。

Masahiko Uotani, chief executive of the cosmetics giant Shiseido, said he knew of female executives who had been locked out of hotel rooms or denied admission to meetings on overseas business trips because their ID didn’t match their surname.

资生堂的首席执行官鱼谷雅彦表示，他知道有女性高管因为身份证与姓氏不符而被拒绝入住酒店房间或被拒绝参加海外商务会议。

"The current system is becoming a barrier to career development for those who are internationally active,” Uotani said at a meeting of the Japan Business Federation, a powerful lobby group, according to the Mainichi Shimbun.

据《每日新闻》报道，鱼谷在日本商业联合会的一次会议上表示：“当前的体制对于那些在国际上活跃的人来说，已经成为了职业发展的障碍。”

The federation, known as Keidanren, has collected testimony from other professional women who have fallen foul of the single-name requirement. One said that having to change her last name “is ruining my career as the academic papers I’ve written under my maiden name are not being recognised”, according to the Mainichi. Another said: “In some cases, my business name has not been accepted when signing contracts.”

该联合会被称为经团联，已经收集了其他遭受单姓要求限制的职业女性的证词。据《每日新闻》报道，其中一位女性表示，被要求改姓“正在毁掉我的职业生涯，因为我以婚前姓写的学术论文没有被认可”。另一位女性表示：“在某些情况下，我的职场名字在签订合同时未被接受。”

Now Keidanren has thrown its weight behind the campaign in a reflection of a shift in Japanese corporate culture. While almost 84% of companies allow women to keep their original surnames in the workplace, according to a 2022 survey by the Institute of Labour Administration, the extra documentation needed on overseas work trips continues to cause confusion.

现在，日本经团联支持这项运动，反映了日本企业文化的转变。根据劳动管理研究所2022年的调查，几乎84%的公司允许女性在工作场所保留自己的原姓，但在海外工作出差时需要额外的文件仍然引起困惑。

"I want it to be implemented as a top priority to support women’s working styles,” Keidanren’s head, Masakazu Tokura, said recently, declaring himself “bewildered” by the lack of progress since the ministry panel made its recommendation in 1996.

“我希望将其作为支持女性工作方式的首要任务来实施。”日本经济团体联合会会长十倉雅和最近表示，他对自1996年部委小组提出建议以来的进展缓慢感到“困惑”。

While the government has allowed maiden names to appear alongside married names on passports, driving licences and residence certificates, Japan remains maybe the only country in the world that requires spouses to use the same name.

尽管政府已允许婚姻证件、驾驶执照和居住证上同时显示娘家姓和婚姓，但日本可能仍是世界上唯一要求配偶使用相同姓氏的国家。

Conservative LDP members argue that amending the civil code would amount to an assault on traditional values by “undermining” family unity and causing confusion among children.

保守派自民党成员认为修改民法将对传统价值观构成一种攻击，"破坏"家庭团结并导致孩子们困惑。

Osawa, who is “not optimistic” that recent pressure will lead to a legal change, dismisses the family values argument as an “excuse for inaction”.

Osawa并不乐观，认为最近的压力不会导致法律变革，他对家庭价值观的论点不屑一顾，认为这只是一种“无所作为的借口”。

"Japan’s divorce rate is on a par with that of the UK and Germany, so the current law on names is not supporting family stability,” Osawa said. “Times have changed, and most households need a double income to make ends meet, so having a choice for couples to decide what name to go by makes sense, and it promotes gender equality.”

“日本的离婚率与英国和德国相当，因此现行的姓名法律并不能维护家庭稳定，”小泽说。“时代已经改变，大多数家庭需要双份收入来维持生计，所以让夫妻可以选择自己的姓氏是有意义的，它促进了性别平等。”

The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has urged caution, claiming last year that “various opinions among the public” meant more discussion was needed to win “broad” support for the change.

日本首相岸田文雄敦促各方谨慎行事，去年他声称“公众意见各异”，需要更多讨论来赢得对这一变革的“广泛”支持。

Saikawa hopes other women do not have to navigate the bureaucratic maze she faced after marrying. “Having separate surnames would mean they would no longer have to alter their name dozens of times, reset their careers and rebuild the reputation they had established under their maiden name,” she says.

Saikawa希望其他女性不必像她一样在婚后面对繁琐的官僚迷宫。她说：“拥有不同的姓氏意味着她们不再需要多次改名，重新开始职业生涯，并重建自己用婚前姓氏建立的声誉。”

"And they would be able to cherish a name that represents their family’s history and is a part of their own identity.”

“她们将能够珍视一个代表她们家族历史并成为她们身份的一部分的名字。”