‘Ruining my career’: calls grow for Japan to change law on married surnames

Japanese female executives have been locked out of hotel rooms or denied admission to meetings on overseas business trips because of Japan’s civil code that rules spouses must have the same surname. Photograph: d3sign/Getty Images

For Akiko Saikawa, the administrative nightmare began soon after she married.

The office worker from Tokyo had to go through dozens of procedures to change her name on her passport and other documents, as well updating her social media accounts. All because she had been required, by law, to change her surname as a married woman.