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2011 November 30 - December 6 [CIVIL RIGHTS]

Woman member struggles for local assembly’s authorization of use of maiden name

The Kanazawa City Assembly in Ishikawa Prefecture has just approved its woman member’s use of her maiden name in her job. Hirota Miyo, a 30-year-old Kanazawa City Assembly member of the Japanese Communist Party, fought for the last 6 months to have the assembly authorize her to keep her original family name. The following is an Akahata interview with Hirota:

No precedent

In April this year, I ran for the city assembly election using Hirota, my maiden name which I used in my previous job as a nurse. After winning the election, I requested the city assembly to allow me to keep using my maiden name, but this request met opposition from other parties just because there was no such precedent in the assembly.

Then, I started publicly calling for my maiden name to be authorized to be used in my work. Many messages of support were sent to my blog, Facebook, or Twitter accounts as well as to the city office.

After 6 months following the election, I finally received approval from all parties in the local assembly on November 7. This happened to be the date of my wedding anniversary.

I believe this victory will help promote the reform of local assemblies as well as the advancement of women.

Women’s use of their maiden name has been approved by both chambers in the Diet as well as many local assemblies, including ones in Ishikawa Prefecture.

To be able to use their maiden name is significant for women not only to maintain social recognition in various careers, but also to maintain long-term human relations and their very identity.

Revision of Civil Code

Throughout my ordeal, I realized that a major obstacle still remains to promote gender equality in the society. The local assembly, a body that should put the greatest emphasis on human rights and gender equality, was years behind the general public, which widely recognizes women’s right to choose their maiden name.

The national government’s neglect to revise the Civil Code in order to allow married couples to choose to keep their original name or choose either partner’s name prolongs the discrimination. Following in the footsteps of the former government led by the Liberal Democratic Party, the present Democratic Party government has also put the task on the back shelf.

I will continue to work to achieve a genuinely gender-equal society that supports various opinions expressed and choices made by both men and women.