A Tokyo High Court ruled that a lack of protections for same-sex marriage in Japan was unconstitutional, becoming the second high court to do so. File Photo by Jiji Press/EPA-EFE
The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday ruled that the government’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriage was against the country’s constitution, marking the second court to do so.
The court said the Japanese government’s failure to protect same-sex marriage had “no rational basis” and has become a form of “legal discrimination based on sexual orientation.” Advertisement
The court cited Article 14 of the Constitution, which declares that everyone is equal under the law, and a paragraph of Article 24 stating that laws on marriage “shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes.”
Wednesday’s ruling follows another by the Sapporo High Court in March, which backed a lower court’s 2021 ruling that the lack of same-sex marriage protection violated Article 14.
The Sapporo ruling also ruled the wording of the paragraph from article 24 could be interpreted to guarantee marriage for same-sex couples, countering the government’s argument that the language excluded them.
“The degree of social acceptance for granting (same-sex couples) the same protection as heterosexuals has heightened considerably,” Presiding Judge Sonoe Taniguchi said in her ruling, according to Kyodo News. Advertisement
The plaintiffs took their case to the High Court after a Tokyo District Court in November rejected damages against the government while suggesting that the topic was one more suited to be resolved by the Japanese legislature.
The court, however, rejected the plaintiff’s call for $6,500 in compensation from the government for not protecting same-sex marriage.
No court has approved financial compensation for plaintiffs in cases challenging the lack of same-sex marriage protection.
Taniguchi said in the ruling that the government could not be found liable to compensate plaintiffs as the Supreme Court has yet to rule on protections for same-sex marriage.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said during a press conference that introducing a same-sex marriage system “concerns the fundamentals of people’s lives and is closely related to each parson’s view of the family.”
