日本最高法院判决夫妻同姓不违宪

Married couples in Japan must keep using the same surname after the country’s supreme court ruled that a century-old law is constitutional.

日本最高法院裁定该国一项有百年历史的法条符合宪法，日本的夫妻双方必须继续使用同一姓氏。

The decision is a blow to women’s rights campaigners who argue the requirement for married couples to use the same name violates their constitutional right to equality.

这项裁定对妇女权利活动人士是一个打击。这些活动人士认为，要求夫妻使用同一姓氏违反了宪法赋予她们的男女平等权利。

The ruling throws the fight over married names back to Japan’s parliament, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s enthusiasm for putting women in the workforce is much greater than his appetite for human rights or social reform.

这项裁定将婚后姓氏之争抛回了日本国会，而日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)对推动女性加入劳动力大军的热情远大于他对人权或社会改革的兴趣。

It shows the continuing battle for gender equality in Japan, where traditional roles are still deeply rooted, and women often face discrimination at work. Mr Abe has set targets for women in management positions but passed few concrete reforms.

这项裁定表明，日本女性争取男女平等的斗争仍将继续。在日本，男性和女性仍然很难挣脱自己要扮演的传统角色，而且女性在职场常常遭受歧视。虽然安倍设定了管理层中女性占比的目标，但并未通过多少具体的改革措施。

Five plaintiffs sued the government in 2011 seeking compensation for their distress at being forced to change their names. After losing at lower levels, they appealed to the Supreme Court.

2011年，5名原告起诉日本政府，以苦于被迫改姓为由向国家提出赔偿要求。在较低级别的法院败诉后，她们上诉至最高法院。

“One view is that by having to change their name, a person loses their identity, but it has become easier to keep using it as a popular name so this is not unconstitutional,” said Itsuro Terada, chief justice of the Supreme Court.

日本最高法院首席大法官寺田逸郎(Itsuro Terada)说：“一种观点认为，被迫改姓让个人失去了自我认同，但继续使用原姓作为日常用姓已变得更为容易，所以这并不违宪。”

Mr Terada said the law was not discriminatory because couples could choose the man’s or the woman’s surname. In practice, however, more than 90 per cent of women adopt their husband’s name and some companies require staff to work under their legal name.

寺田称，该法条并不构成歧视，因为夫妻双方可选择随男方或随女方的姓。然而，在现实中，超过90%的女性婚后随夫姓，而且有些公司要求员工在工作中使用法定姓名。

Reports from the courtroom said five of the 15 judges had dissented, agreeing the law was unconstitutional, raising the prospect that the Supreme Court will revisit the law in the future. Opinion polls show the public is split roughly 50-50, although younger generations want to change the law.

来自法庭的报道称，15名法官中有5名持有异议，认为该法条违宪。这带来了最高法院未来重新审议该法条的可能性。民调显示，对这一问题持对立看法的公众数量大致相当，尽管较年轻的人群希望修改该法条。

Campaigners were victorious in a second case, however, with the Supreme Court striking down another 19th-century law requiring women, but not men, to wait for six months after a divorce before getting remarried.

然而，活动人士在另一起案子中胜诉：日本最高法院推翻了另一项源于19世纪的法条——该法条要求女性离婚后6个月内不得再婚，对男性则无此要求。

The law on remarriage is supposed to prevent disputes about who fathered children — of vital importance in the Meiji era when inheritances were at stake but less relevant with the advent of DNA paternity tests.

这项针对再婚的法条本意是为了防止搞不清楚离婚后出生的子女的生父是谁而产生的纠纷——在遗产继承利害攸关的明治时代，这一点至关重要，但随着DNA亲子鉴定技术的出现，其重要性已经降低。

“With the advance of technology, at this point any period in excess of 100 days is an excessive restriction,” said Mr Terada. Depending on how the government applies the law, the remaining 100-day restriction will probably apply only to pregnant women, leaving most able to remarry immediately.

寺田说：“随着技术的进步，在这一点上，任何超过100天的期限都是过度的限制。”仍保留的100天限制很可能将仅适用于孕妇，而大多数离异女性都可立即再婚，具体怎样将取决于日本政府如何实行该法条。

“In the 21st century, people are no longer getting married for their family but for themselves,” said Tomoshi Sakka, the lawyer who brought the case on behalf of a women in her 30s from Okayama prefecture. “From that perspective I think it’s a great decision.”

“在21世纪，人们不再为自己的家族、而是为自己结婚，”代表冈山县一名30多岁的女性提起诉讼的律师作花知志(Tomoshi Sakka)说，“从这一角度看，我认为这是一个伟大的决定。”

Yoshihide Suga, chief cabinet secretary, said the government would move quickly to revise the law so as to comply with the 100-day limit.

日本内阁官房长官菅义伟(Yoshihide Suga)表示，政府将尽快修订该法条，以便符合100天的限制。