Hoju

Hoju (Korean: 호주; Hanja: 戶主; lit. household head) is a family register system in North Korea and formerly in South Korea. Hojuje (호주제; 戶主制) is the "head of the family" system, and Hojeok (호적; 戶籍; McCune–Reischauer romanization: Hojŏk) is the "family register". In South Korea, it was formally introduced in 1953.

Analogous to other family registries across East Asia, it is similar to the Chinese hukou and the Japanese koseki.

Opponents of the hoju system believed it to be innately patriarchal and representing a "violation of the right to gender equality". In South Korea, it was opposed by both feminists and by representatives of religious traditions including Buddhism and Christianity. South Korea abolished hoju on 1 January 2008 after the Constitutional Court found it incompatible with the constitution in 2005.