Women Fight Uphill Battle for Equity

Mariko Kato loves her husband, but 4 years ago she divorced him. It was strictly a divorce of convenience. Kato, a theoretical astrophysicist at Keio University, was fed up with the consequences of a Japanese law that requires married couples to take a single surname, generally the husband's. While legally she had changed her name, Kato was determined to use her maiden name professionally. But that meant every time Kato applied for a grant or a visa to travel to international meetings, she had to argue with uncaring bureaucrats that she and the scientist on the application were the same person. So in 1992, after 7 years of marriage, Kato divorced her husband, an astronomer at the University of Tokyo.