Married Couples and Surnames

When a Japanese person marries a foreigner, he/she has the choice of changing or keeping his/her name. Apparently that's not the case when two Japanese citizens marry. They must have the same surname. Usually the woman takes the man's name, but I have met several couples where the man takes the woman's name (this especially happens when a woman with no bothers marries a man who has a brother). I think it was also more common in arranged marriages (again, if a family had a business and no son, they would make their daughter marry someone to take over the business). Since 1996, there have been surveys taken to gauge the support of changing the law to allow separate surnames in families, and for the first time since 1996, more people supported keeping the law than revising it. You can read about it in English here, or read a more detailed account in Japanese here. It was very close with 36.4% against the change and 35.5% for allowing couples to keep their own surnames. A strong competitor, as seems to be the case in most Japanese polls, was "no opinion" with 28.1%. Also, people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s supported a change while old people (who hate their grandchildren, I assume) were against the change. Just another statistic showing that there are too many elderly people in Japan. 53.3% of women in their 20s supported the change, but they're just the most likely people to get married, so who cares what they think.