DPJ AT THE HELM / Govt 'to let couples use 2 surnames' / C.

DPJ AT THE HELM / Govt 'to let couples use 2 surnames' / Civil Code may be revised next year

Yomiuri

The government intends to introduce a system that will give married couples the right to use separate surnames, according to government sources.

The government reportedly plans to submit a bill to revise the Civil Code--which stipulates that married couples must have the same surname--to an ordinary session of the Diet next year, at the earliest.

If the revision is realized, it would be the first major change to the law in the six decades since its inception. The surname rule for married couples was stipulated in the Civil Code in 1947.

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