TOKYO, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Twelve people on Friday filed lawsuits against the Japanese central government, claiming the country's laws that force married couples to use the same surname violate the constitution.

The one married couple and five unmarried couples living in Tokyo, Hokkaido and Nagano regions are seeking compensation and the right to get married without changing their surnames in the lawsuits filed at courts in Tokyo and Hokkaido's Sapporo.

Of the defendants, aged between 30s and 60s, five couples are in common-law marriages due to their discomfort in the current law, while the legally married couple expressed a "strong sense of loss" when changing surnames.

The plaintiffs and their defense counsel claimed that couples were faced with two extreme choices under the current law, between changing surnames and remaining unwed, arguing that changing surnames for marriage makes it difficult to maintain credibility and appraisal linked to birth names and can cause identity crises for some people.

"A surname is part of one's identity. We need provisions for separate surnames in order for everyone to marry happily," said 46-year-old Megumi Ueda, one of the plaintiffs in Tokyo.

Kiyotaka Nishi, 32, who filed the lawsuit at the Sapporo District Court, said, "It is relevant to anyone who gets married. I hope men watch the case and develop an awareness that they might need to change their own surnames too."

Similar lawsuits have been filed in the past. In 2015 and 2021, the Supreme Court's 15-member grand bench ruled the related laws constitutional by a majority vote. But five justices in 2015 and four in 2021 called the same surname provision unconstitutional.

In 1996, the Justice Ministry's Legislative Council proposed revisions for allowing separate surnames, but these never made it to the parliament due to opposition from conservative lawmakers. Enditem

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