December 4, 2024

A group of multipartisan parliamentarians, including Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Tamura Tomoko, on December 3 participated in a rally hosted by women’s groups at the Upper House Dietmembers’ Office Building to make use of the recommendation of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) urging the Japanese government to allow a choice of surnames for married couples.

Along with Tamura, JCP members of the House of Representatives Horikawa Akiko and Motomura Nobuko, JCP members of the House of Councilors Inoue Satoshi, Kami Tomoko, Kira Yoshiko, Kurabayashi Akiko, Nihi Sohei, and Yamazoe Taku also took part in this rally.

Tamura said, “Japan continues to turn its back on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It is not appropriate to leave Japan’s backwardness in the area of fundamental human rights as it is.” She promised the 20 civic groups present at the rally that the JCP will push to have sessions in the Diet to study the substance of the recommendation and will also seek Diet deliberations on a shelved bill to introduce a selective dual-surname system as well as the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention which has been under “consideration” for a quarter of a century.

In addition to legal reform to give married couples the option to have separate surnames, CEDAW recommends that Japan: ratify the Optional Protocol; take concrete measures to eliminate the wage gap between men and women; appropriately punish sexual violence committed by U.S. soldiers in Okinawa and provide relief to victims; and remove from the Maternal Protection Act the spousal consent requirement for abortion.

Past related articles:
> JCP EC Chair Tamura expresses her intention to utilize CEDAW findings to realize selective dual surname system [November 8, 2024]
> Japanese gov’t should take CEDAW observations and recommendations seriously [October 31, 2024]