Japan Court Upholds Ban On Gay Marriages
starobserver.com.auIn a setback to Japan’s LGBTQI community, a court in Osaka ruled that the country’s ban on same sex marriages was not “unconstitutional”.
Japan is the only G7 country to deny same-sex couples the right to marry. The court dismissed the case filed by two gay couples and one lesbian couple and rejected their demand for 1 million yen in damages for each couple for “unjust discrimination”, reported Reuters.Last year, another court in Sapporo had ruled that the country’s failure to recognise same-sex marriages was unconstitutional.
Earlier this month, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government had announced that it will start issuing partnership certificates to same-sex couples from November 2022.
The authorities clarified that it was not a marriage certificate, which also grants other rights to spouses. A poll by Ispos in 2021 said that around 69% of those surveyed in Japan supported same-sex marriages or other forms of recognition for gay couples.
