Japan shuns different surnames for married couples in gender policy

After heated debate among ruling party lawmakers, the Japanese government failed to include a commitment to allowing married couples to use different surnames in its basic gender equality promotion policy approved Friday.The new five-year policy also pushed back the goal of having women occupy around 30 percent of managerial positions in society to "as early as possible in the 2020s" from the initial deadline of this year, as the country continued to lag behind other nations in narrowing gender gaps.Hopes had been growing for Japan to allow different surnames as Prime Minister Yoshihide Sug…READ FULL ARTICLE