Japan's supreme court ruled Wednesday that an 1896 law requiring married couples to share a surname is in fact constitutional, a decision many consider to be a major setback for women's rights in the country. The challenge to the law was brought by five women who sought damages for "emotional distress and the practical inconvenience of having to take their husband's name," The Guardian reports.
While the Japanese law does not necessarily require a woman to take her husband's name — a man could just as well take his wife's — 96 percent of the time women do end up adopting their spouse's surname, a pressure critics attribute to Japan's patriarchal society.
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