拒絕隨夫姓，日本女性的平權之路

TOKYO — Japan’s Constitution promises gender equality, and the prime minister says he wants a society where all women can “shine.” But many women say it is hard to do that when they cannot even use their own surnames.

東京 —— 日本憲法承諾性別平等。日本首相稱，他希望在日本社會，所有女性都能“發(fā)光”。但是很多日本女人稱，這一點很難做到，她們甚至不能用自己的本姓。

Under a Japanese law that dates to the Meiji era, more than a century ago, all married couples must use one surname. In theory, a couple may choose either the husband’s or the wife’s last name, but in practice, 96 percent of women assume their husband’s.

根據(jù)一項可以追溯到100多年前的明治時期的日本法律，所有夫妻必須用一個姓。理論上，他們可以選擇用夫姓或妻姓，但在實踐中，96%的女性隨夫姓。

Recent court rulings indicate that the law is unlikely to be softened anytime soon, despite rising criticism.

最近的一些法庭裁決表明，這項法律不大可能很快出現(xiàn)松動，盡管它已招致越來越多的批評。

Yoko Uozumi is happily married with a 4-year-old daughter. Two months ago, she took a job in the photo framing business where her husband also works and decided to use only the surname that she was given at birth.

羽澄洋子(Yoko Uozumi，音)婚姻幸福，有個4歲的女兒。兩個月前，她在丈夫工作的相片裝裱公司找到了一份工作，她決定只用自己出生時的姓氏。

Uozumi, 36, said she did not want customers to confuse her with her husband, Shigeru Otsuka, as most employees are known primarily by their last names in Japan.

現(xiàn)年36歲的羽澄說，她不想讓顧客把她和丈夫大冢茂(Shigeru Otsuka，音)搞混了，因為在日本，人們大多只以員工的姓氏相稱。

Using her birth surname went beyond convenience. It was also a declaration of empowerment.

用自己的本姓不只是為了方便，也是在宣布自己的自主權。

“I feel more independent,” Uozumi said. “I feel more who I am.”

“我感覺更獨立，”羽澄說，“感覺更像自己。”

The choice she made, however, is not available to all Japanese women. This month, a Tokyo District Court declined to grant a high school teacher’s request to use her original name at work.

不過，不是所有的日本女性都能像她那樣自己做決定。本月，一家東京地方裁判所(Tokyo District Court )拒絕了一名高中教師在工作中使用本姓的要求。

That decision came after Japan’s Supreme Court ruled in December that the law did not violate the constitution or place an undue burden on women because an increasing number of employers now permit women to use their birth surnames professionally.

去年12月，日本最高裁判所(Supreme Court)裁定這項法律不違憲，沒有給女性增加不必要的負擔，因為現(xiàn)在越來越多的雇主允許女性在工作中使用自己的本姓。

Critics were disappointed by the Supreme Court decision because it did not strike down the legal prohibition against separate surnames for married couples, leaving it to the Parliament instead.

批評者對最高裁判所的這項裁定感到失望，因為它沒有取消禁止夫妻使用不同姓氏的法令，而是把這個問題留給了國會。

Among democratic countries in the developed world, Japan ranks low on gender equality in health, education, the economy and politics. Despite recent high-profile examples, women hold very few powerful positions in politics or business, while many working mothers complain that day care is inadequate.

在發(fā)達民主國家中，日本在衛(wèi)生、教育、經(jīng)濟和政治領域的性別平等上比較落后。盡管最近出現(xiàn)了一些引人矚目的例子，但女性在政界和商界極少占據(jù)高位，與此同時，很多職業(yè)母親抱怨日托服務不完善。

The marital naming law, supported by many conservatives who believe that women belong predominantly in the home supporting their husbands and families, is seen by some as another vestige of discrimination against women in Japanese society.

很多保守派支持夫妻同姓法，認為女性主要應在家里支持丈夫和家人，但有些人認為這項法律是日本社會歧視女性的一個遺留現(xiàn)象。

In the Tokyo District Court case, the three judges, all men, ruled that the teacher’s employer, a private school in Tokyo, could not be compelled to let her use her birth surname at work. Citing surveys that show about a quarter of women use their original surnames in the workplace, the court said doing so was “not deeply rooted in society.”

在東京地方裁判所的那起案件中，三名全是男性的法官裁定，不能迫使那名教師的雇主——東京的一家私立學校——允許她在工作中使用本姓。裁判所稱，調(diào)查顯示，只有四分之一的女性在工作中使用本姓，所以這種做法“在社會中并非根深蒂固”。

The plaintiff, who has remained anonymous in the publicly available court documents, declined an interview request through her lawyer. In court filings, the teacher, described as recently married, said students and colleagues knew her by her given surname. She asked to be allowed to continue to use it on letters home to parents, attendance records and report cards.

原告在公開的法庭文件中匿名，她通過律師拒絕了采訪要求。在法庭文件中，這名新近結婚的教師稱，學生和同事是以其本姓認識她這個人的。她要求繼續(xù)在致家長函、考勤簿和成績單上使用自己的本姓。

In the United States, where women may legally keep their surnames after marriage, there is still a strong social convention among heterosexual couples for wives to take their husbands’ names. Even the highest estimates show only one in five U.S. women keeps her surname when she marries.

在美國，法律允許女性在婚后使用本姓，但在異性夫妻中，妻隨夫姓依然是一種根深蒂固的社會傳統(tǒng)。據(jù)最樂觀的估計， 只有五分之一的美國女性婚后保留本姓。

“Naming is really one of the last socially approved kinds of sexist behavior," Laurie Scheuble, a sociologist at Pennsylvania State University, wrote in an email.

“隨夫姓真的是最后一些得到社會認可的性別歧視行為之一，”賓夕法尼亞州立大學(Pennsylvania State University)的社會學家勞麗·朔伊布勒(Laurie Scheuble)在接受郵件采訪時寫道。

In Japan, advocates for women, including lawmakers across the political spectrum, say they simply want women to make their own choices about their names.

日本的女性支持者(包括政壇各派別的立法者)表示，他們只是想讓女性自己決定用誰的姓。

“I don’t want to make a law where every couple has to use two different names,” said Kimie Iwata, president of the Japan Institute for Women’s Empowerment and Diversity Management. “But I want the society to make a law that is generous to everyone and accepts diversity.”

“我不想制訂一項法律，要求所有夫妻必須使用不同的姓，”倡導女性賦權的21世紀職業(yè)財團(Japan Institute for Women’s Empowerment and Diversity Management)的會長巖田喜美枝(Kimie Iwata)說，“但我想讓這個社會制訂一項對所有人寬容、接受多樣化的法律。”

While campaigning recently for the leadership of the opposition Democratic Party, Renho Murata said she wanted to help change the marital naming law. (Murata goes simply by the name Renho, and her Twitter handle is @Renho-sha, using her birth surname.)

最近在競選反對黨民主黨領袖一職的村田蓮舫(Renho Murata)稱，她想幫助改變夫妻同姓法(村田只用自己的名字蓮舫，她的推特賬戶是@Renho-sha，用的是自己的本姓謝[Sha])。

Seiko Noda, a member of the House of Representatives from the governing Liberal Democratic Party, said she had advocated the right to separate surnames for a quarter-century. “We lawmakers have to destroy this wrong practice,” Noda said, lamenting that many of her fellow Liberal Democrats did not care about overturning the law.

野田圣子(Seiko Noda)是執(zhí)政黨自民黨(Liberal Democratic Party)國會眾議員。她說，25年來，她一直倡導夫妻使用不同姓氏的權利。“我們立法者必須消滅這種錯誤做法，”野田說。她哀嘆很多自民黨黨員對廢除這項法律不感興趣。

Noda’s husband, formerly Fuminobu Kimura, took her last name.

野田的丈夫原名木村文信(Fuminobu Kimura)，婚后隨了她的姓。

“Whenever he has bad luck, he always complains, ‘Oh, it’s because my surname changed,'” Noda said. She said he now supported an overhaul of the marital naming law. “He understands how much burden women had to go through,” she said.

“只要他碰上壞運氣，就會抱怨說，‘哦，那是因為我改了姓，'”野田說。她表示，丈夫現(xiàn)在支持徹底廢除夫妻同姓法。“他理解女性承受了多少負擔，”她說。

Public opinion polls show a significant shift in views on married couples using a single surname. In 1976, close to two-thirds surveyed by the Justice Ministry said the law was fine as is; that had dropped to just over one-third in 2012.

民意調(diào)查顯示，民眾對夫妻使用同一姓氏的觀點發(fā)生了很大變化。1976年，近三分之二的司法部調(diào)查對象稱，這項法律沒有問題。到2012年，這一比例已降至三分之一多一點。

In the absence of legal reform, some couples choose not to legally register their marriages, even though women in such relationships have fewer legal protections.

由于沒有進行法律改革，有些夫妻選擇不進行婚姻登記，盡管在這種關系中，女性得到的法律保護更少。

Mizuho Fukushima, 60, a member of the upper house of Parliament from the Social Democratic Party who has repeatedly proposed a revision of the single-surname law, said she had remained in a common-law marriage for nearly four decades with Yuichi Kaido, a lawyer with whom she has a daughter.

現(xiàn)年60歲的福島瑞穗(Mizuho Fukushima)是社民黨(Social Democratic Party)參議員。她多次提出修改夫妻同姓法。她說，她和身為律師的丈夫海渡雄一(Yuichi Kaido)的事實婚姻存續(xù)了近40年，他們有個女兒。

“When I met him, I was Mizuho Fukushima, and my identity is Mizuho Fukushima,” she said.

“我遇見他時，我叫福島瑞穗，我的身份就是福島瑞穗，”她說。

A younger generation of working women say their original surnames carry professional clout that they do not want to lose when they marry.

年輕一代職業(yè)女性稱，她們的本姓具有職業(yè)影響力，她們不想在婚后失去它。

“My name is my brand,” said Miyuki Inoue, 28, who works in sales at a human resources consulting firm. She married three years ago but continues to use her original surname at the office.

“我的名字就是我的品牌，”28歲的井上深雪(Miyuki Inoue)說。她在一家人力資源咨詢公司的銷售部工作。她三年前結婚后，繼續(xù)在工作中用自己的本姓。

“I don’t want to waste the trust and good reputation that I’ve built in my career,” she said.

“我不想浪費我在事業(yè)中建立起來的信任度和良好聲譽，”她說。