C'mon Japan, it's 2021 for goodness sake

[theking]

Japan's top court rules that couples must share a last name. Japan's top court has ruled that it is constitutional to force married couples to share a last name. The law is an archaic 19th-century mandate.

Japan's highest court has upheld a 19th-century law that forces couples to share the same last name.

A bench of 15 justices at the Japanese supreme court rejected a petition from three Tokyo couples, who requested that they be allowed to keep their own surnames even after they get married.

Japan is the only country in the world to have such a ruling in its civil code, which stipulates that couples must choose at the time of marriage to adopt one surname, according to Japan's Ministry of Justice.