TOKYO, Mar 09 (News On Japan) –
A gaggle of 12 people residing in Tokyo and different areas has filed a lawsuit towards the Japanese authorities, claiming that the Civil Code’s provisions that don’t acknowledge married {couples}’ option to retain separate surnames violate the Constitution.
Despite the Supreme Court’s Grand Bench ruling twice that the supply is constitutional, the plaintiffs argue for a change within the “unreasonable system that forces one member of a couple to give up their surname in order to marry.” The lawsuit was filed by 5 common-law {couples} and one married couple from Tokyo, Nagano, Hokkaido, and different areas.
On March eighth, they submitted a grievance to the district courts in Tokyo and Sapporo, demanding compensation and asserting that the Civil Code and Family Register Law’s provisions violate the constitutional assure of freedom of marriage and are due to this fact invalid. The plaintiffs and their authorized crew contend that altering one’s surname upon marriage could make it troublesome to keep up the popularity and credit score related to the previous identify and that many individuals really feel a lack of id.
Couples who’ve opted for common-law marriage because of the reluctance to marry below the present system face disadvantages corresponding to inheritance points, resulting in a relentless state of unease.
The identical provision has been examined twice by the Supreme Court’s Grand Bench, which consists of all 15 justices, in 2015 and 2021, and on each events, the bulk opinion was that it didn’t violate the Constitution. However, there have been dissenting justices who believed it did violate the Constitution—5 in 2015 and 4 in 2021.
One of the plaintiffs from Tokyo, who has been in a common-law marriage along with his accomplice for 17 years and has a center school-aged daughter, Mr. Mitsuru Nezu (pseudonym), stated, “My daughter is unable to receive various legal benefits. I don’t want to leave an unreasonable system that doesn’t allow us to marry unless one of us gives up our surname to the next generation.”
The head of the plaintiffs’ authorized crew, legal professional Makiko Terahara, said, “We filed the lawsuit because, despite the Supreme Court indicating that the issue should be discussed in the Diet, there has been no movement. We are arguing that this is not a political issue but a human rights issue, and we hope that the judiciary will finally put an end to this violation of human rights.”
Source: NHK