The nation's women are going through an identity crisis.
They're fighting to overturn a law that bars married couples from having different last names, which creates complications for women who have established careers and reputations.
About 600,000 Japanese couples wed every year and the law says that after marriage a couple must have the same surname. Technically, men may take their wives' family name. Yet in practice, only about 4 percent do.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.