SW News:
On Monday, June 20, a district court in Japan’s Osaka prefecture ruled that the ban on same-sex marriage is not unconstitutional. The Osaka court said that as per the Japanese constitution, marriage is defined as being based on mutual consent between a man and a woman and not between people of the same gender.


The decision of the Osaka court contradicts the March 2021 ruling by a court in Sapporo, located in Hokkaido in northern Japan, which said that prohibiting same-sex marriages was unconstitutional.

Three same-sex couples had filed a lawsuit which argued that their constitutional right to equality was being violated as same-sex marriages were not recognized by the government. They also sought compensation of one million yen per person.

Japan is the only country among the G7 nation that has not recognized same-sex civil unions or same-sex marriages at a national level. According to the nation’s current laws, people in same-sex relationships cannot legally marry, inherit each other’s assets, and have parental rights over each other's children.