January 24, 2020

A Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker on January 22 in the Diet jeered at an opposition legislator who was calling for a system of separate surnames for married couples, by yelling, "Then, they don't have to get married!"

This happened when Tamaki Yuichiro, head of the Democratic Party for the People, took the rostrum in the House of Representatives plenary session and talked about a man in his 20s who was told by his girlfriend that she cannot choose to marry because she does not want to lose her family name. Tamaki used his question time to single out Japan as the only country in the world where the same surname is obligatory for married couples by law, and demanded that Japan introduce the system without delay.

The following day, Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo after his questioning of the day in the Diet was asked by the press for comments on the jeering incident.

Shii said, "The heckler represented the mindset of the LDP and Prime Minister Abe. That person cannot even imagine how seriously the jeer would hurt couples concerned. That lawmaker may be obsessed with the outdated family values which are 'Only the same family name can shape a family, and if not, that cannot be called a family.' The desire to return to the prewar family system underlies the heckling."