I am deeply saddened by the court's decision. I have worked with my pre-marriage surname and used it on school materials and I didn't want to separate my achievements from my name.

There was a TV show the other day, debating about what words to use, 入籍 or 結婚. Apparently the media wants to stop using 入籍 and started using 結婚 in its reporting, but most of the women in attendance want to use 入籍, because it imparts them the feeling of "entering and belonging to a household". I know it's a small sample, but I got the feeling that a lot of Japanese women just don't care or even want to change.

Yet another story that's been picked up by the global media and is making Japan look like a provincial backwater from the 1930s. Perhaps if the powers that be actually made an effort to bring the country into the 21st.century they wouldn't need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on PR propaganda every year. Just a thought.

What does it matter what name a person uses, so long as it's clear who is meant? Does Nihon University's Third Junior and Senior High School have no bigger problems on its plate than dictating whether a person is allowed to use the name he or she is born with? Whose name is it, anyways?

Leaving aside the whole separate-names-for-married-couples argument and the need to use your 'official' name for things like taxes and bank accounts, what problems are caused by a person using the name of their choice for going about their daily business?

Disclaimer - my 'official' name, the one on my passport, is the one I'm obliged to use with officialdom. But it's long and a bother (my bank book has to be written by hand and issued manually, cos the computer can't handle it) and no one has ever objected to my using my shortened, easier, 'everyday' name for everyday use. I'm sure the university and this lady could have come to some kind of similar arrangement. Sounds to me like someone is pulling the 'we have to do it official-like' thing just because they can.

情けない。

When I got married a couple years ago (I'm Japanese and my wife's American) at the city hall counter she decided to keep her family name and I agreed as I thought she would look ridiculous with a half Japanese and half English name. After that, that was it we both kept our original names. I've never encountered such uptight people that would be willing to take you to court just because you want to introduce yourself with a name you identify with. How do these people stand working with each other everyday?

The court is wrong, of course. Michael Caine doesn't use his 'official' name and is well-known despite that.

Reasonable and necessary? If Ms Tanaka marries Mr Suzuki, is the office drone going to be confused if he has to call the teacher Ms Tanaka instead of Mrs Suzuki? Doubt it. Necessary? Doubt it again.

It feels as if some upper-level management oyaji discovered that the person he had been calling Ms Tanaka is actually Mrs Suzuki for tax purposes and his head exploded: "How can one person have Two Names‽" so he insisted she change her name for work purposes. What if Ms Tanaka married Mr Tanaka? What would the oyaji do?

What if Ms Tanaka married Mr Tanaka? What would the oyaji do?

Especially if the kanji for Mr Tanaka and Ms Tanaka were different.

But to be fair, My wife uses her maiden name at work (she works at a big Japanese company) and she told me that if she changed her name then all the old men would be confused to who she was and start thinking she was a new foreigner. They would find it difficult to communicate with her on the internal messaging system etc.....I just rolled my eyes

"Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!"

Proctor's plea before being executed, Arthur Miller's The Crucible

Somebody better go tell Matsuko Deluxe, Akashiya Sanma, etc. etc.

Ludicrous. Anyone should be free to use whatever name they like as long as there is no fraudulent intent. The law needs to be changed, pronto. There is a developing list of obvious vote-winning reforms like this which Renho should be adopting as policy and bashing away at with every opportunity.

It's scary to live in a country where the legality of something like the family registration system can be upheld despite Article 13 of the Japanese constitution clearly stating: All of the people shall be respected as individuals. What else in the Constitution are they going to brush aside next?

Japan keepin on being PRIMITIVE..... and for what reason, please lets get with the present, it wont BITE!!

Some countries people only have one name, and the news article always tells us that for some reason. SO I often wonder what happens when they get married.

and it's ok to keep maiden name if married to a non-Japanese...

@M3M3M3OCT. 14, 2016 - 12:13PM JST

It's scary to live in a country where the legality of something like the family registration system can be upheld despite Article 13 of the Japanese constitution clearly stating: All of the people shall be respected as individuals. What else in the Constitution are they going to brush aside next?

It's easier to understand Japanese civil case handling if you view them as having a wide "margin of appreciation / discretion" doctrine. The issue for them seems not so much which side is more in the right, as whether the action is so wrong it has to be struck down as illegal.