An example of just how far removed from reality the Japanese are:

Allowing separate surnames after marriage could increase crime: Japanese politician

MATSUYAMA -- A petition to adopt a system allowing married couples the option to choose whether or not to keep their premarital surnames was shot down at an Ehime Prefectural Assembly committee here after a conservative assembly member said that adopting such a system could lead to an increase in crime.

The petition seeks the adoption of a position document that calls for the central government to revise the Civil Code to include the implementation of optional surname selection, arguing that married couples are being forced to unwillingly change their surnames, and face disadvantages and inconveniences from using their premarital names in their daily lives that are different from their legal, post-marriage names.

The petition was deliberated by six people, excluding the committee chair, and failed to be adopted 5-to-1. Before the vote, the JCP's Katsuhiko Tanaka, 52, one of the assembly members who submitted the petition, and the only one to vote in favor of it, sought the other committee members' votes, saying, "This is not meant to dictate separate surnames for married couples by law, but rather to make it optional. So it's unthinkable that this would throw Japanese society as a whole into chaos."