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Court rules Japan’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage is unconstitutional

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – In what campaigners have described as a major landmark victory, a court in Japan has ruled that the country’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, AFP reports.

The northern Sapporo district court determined that Japan’s current stance on same-sex marriage violates article 14 of the Japanese constitution, which mandates equality under the law.

The court’s ruling was given in one of more than a dozen lawsuits filed across Japan in a coordinated initiative to challenge the only G7 country that does not recognize same-sex marriage, AFP reports. In its ruling, the court said Japan’s failure to allow same-sex couples to “enjoy even a part of the legal effects that arise from marriage…” is a constitutional violation.

However, the court rejected the plaintiffs’ request for $9,000 per person in damages, determining that lawmakers may have been hindered in legalizing same-sex marriage as this issue has only recently become a matter of parliamentary debate.

Responding to the ruling in a tweet, openly gay opposition lawmaker Kanako Otsuji said: “With this ruling, I urge the Diet, as the legislative branch of the government, to deliberate a proposed amendment to the civil code to make same-sex marriage possible.”

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