Japanese women fight to keep surnames after marriage

Four women in Japan found themselves in court on Valentine's Day -- a notoriously unequal holiday in Japan -- as they filed a lawsuit claiming that a 19th-century law requiring families to choose one surname is unconstitutional.

Only two years ago the United Nations urged Tokyo to "take immediate action to amend the Civil Code," calling the one-surname requirement "discriminatory."

Now a group of women are challenging the 113-year-old law and claming a total of ¥6 million in damages from the government for distress.

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Seventy-five-year-old Yoko Tsukamoto, who has been lobbying and organizing petitions, said "I don't have much time left, I want to die as Kyoko Tsukamoto."

Japan consistently ranks low in measures of equality, placing in the bottom half of the world's countries for women in positions of power in companies, or in the government.

Even on Valentine's Day, the burden is on women to give chocolates to all men in their life, with only the recently created White Day on March 14 forcing the men to reciprocate.

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Current Prime Minister Naoto Kan had promised to change laws to allow couples to retain their original surnames, but progress has stalled amid declining popularity for the leadership and the rise of conservatives.

Japan's neighbors China and South Korea already allow partners to have different surnames and civil activist Yoko Sakamoto says "for those who seek to keep separate surnames, the forcible use of one surname between couples is a serious human rights violation."