ABSTRACT
The koseki system itself – its historical and ideological significance, its powerful gendered resonances across many spheres of society, beyond marriage and divorce, to employment, regional and national identity, nation and citizenship. From the start, the problem of the koseki and the single-surname rule has been about perspective. From a male point of view, a wife having to change her name upon marriage is not a problem. In Japan, sexism and racism operate in different registers through different ideologies and practices, as the koseki system reveals. When trying to make sense of the challenges Japanese women face, the author have tried to show that they are situated differently in a structure that is a different kind of patriarchy than the type known in the United States. So many unwavering and determined activists have struggled for so long and yet they continue to be silenced and marginalized within the public sphere in Japan.
