Japan Press Weekly

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2024 March 6 - 12 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

On International Women’s Day in Japan, rally calling for legalization of selective dual surname system held

On March 8, International Women’s Day, Japanese Communist Party Chair Tamura Tomoko, JCP Secretariat Head Koike Akira, and JCP Upper House member Kira Yoshiko took part in a rally held in the Diet building to demand that a selective dual surname system be legalized.

The rally was hosted by representatives of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai), the Japan Women Tax Accountants’ Federation, a business leaders’ group working for legalization of a dual surname system, and two other business organizations. Along with the JCP lawmakers, several Dietmembers from both ruling and opposition parties participated in the rally.

JCP Chair Tamura delivered a speech and said that in the current Diet session, she used her interpellation to push Prime Minister Kishida Fumio to legalize a system allowing married couples to have different surnames by indicating that even the business community voices support for the system. The JCP Chair expressed her determination to work hard to realize the system in cooperation with business persons.

Prior to the rally, six group’s representatives submitted to PM Kishida a petition calling for the legalization of a selective dual surname system with 1,046 signatures collected from business owners.

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On this day, a lot of concerned people took to the streets at many locations in Japan to increase public awareness of the need to eliminate gender pay gaps and promote gender equality.

The Japan Federation of Women’s Organizations (Fudanren) on the same day organized its own rally in Tokyo, celebrating the 2024 International Women’s Day.

Fudanren President Shibata Masako on behalf of the organizing committee delivered a speech. She noted that this coming autumn, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women will assess progress in Japan’s measures taken in this field, and called on the participants to strengthen the movement to press the government to improve women’s rights in Japan to meet minimum international standards.