{"id":1452561,"date":"2025-10-03T01:24:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T00:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/?p=1452561"},"modified":"2025-10-03T12:19:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T11:19:47","slug":"japan-expands-protections-for-same-sex-couples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/life\/japan-expands-protections-for-same-sex-couples\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan expands protections for same-sex couples"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"113\" data-end=\"188\">The Japanese government has expanded legal protections to same-sex couples.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"190\" data-end=\"380\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2025\/10\/01\/japan\/same-sex-partners-law\/\"><em data-start=\"203\" data-end=\"220\">The Japan Times<\/em><\/a>, the government has decided to recognise same-sex couples as being in &#8220;de facto marriages&#8221; under nine additional laws, including the Disaster Condolence Grant law.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"190\" data-end=\"380\">This follows a decision earlier this year to extend 24 existing laws \u2013 including the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, Land and House Lease Act, Child Abuse Prevention Act, and Public Housing Act \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2025\/10\/01\/japan\/same-sex-partners-law\/\">to same-sex couples.<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"190\" data-end=\"380\">Japan\u2019s LGBTQIA+ community has long been engaged in a battle for marriage equality.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"748\" data-end=\"885\">Currently, the country&#8217;s constitution defines marriage as \u201cmutual consent between both sexes\u201d and does not recognise marriage equality.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"887\" data-end=\"1153\">In March 2021, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2025\/10\/01\/japan\/same-sex-partners-law\/\">Sapporo District Court ruled that the government&#8217;s refusal to recognise same-sex marriage was unconstitutional<\/a> under Article 14 of the Japanese constitution, which bans discrimination based on \u201crace, creed, sex, social status, or family origin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1155\" data-end=\"1291\">While the historic ruling offered a sign of hope for LGBTQIA+ equality, the community was hit with a major setback the following year.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1293\" data-end=\"1409\">In June 2022, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/life\/japanese-court-rules-same-sex-marriage-ban-as-constitutional\/\">a district court in Osaka ruled against three LGBTQIA+ couples and their call for same-sex marriage.<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1411\" data-end=\"1621\">\u201cFrom the perspective of individual dignity, it can be said that it is necessary to realise the benefits of same-sex couples being publicly recognised through official recognition,\u201d the court said on 20 June.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1623\" data-end=\"1724\">\u201cPublic debate on what kind of system is appropriate for this has not been thoroughly carried out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1726\" data-end=\"1780\">A few months later, a Tokyo court upheld the ruling.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1782\" data-end=\"1985\">However, despite the court doubling down on its stance, the presiding judge also stated that the lack of a legal system and protections for same-sex couples infringes on their human rights (per <em data-start=\"1976\" data-end=\"1981\">CNN<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1987\" data-end=\"2133\">While the marriage equality movement in Japan has suffered a handful of setbacks, it has also seen a few notable wins over the last three years.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2135\" data-end=\"2287\">In May 2023, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/life\/japanese-court-rules-same-sex-marriage-ban-as-constitutional\/\">the Japanese government faced renewed pressure<\/a> when the Nagoya District Court ruled the country&#8217;s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2289\" data-end=\"2408\">In 2024, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/life\/japanese-court-rules-same-sex-marriage-ban-as-constitutional\/\">Tokyo High Court and the Sapporo High Court<\/a> issued separate rulings marking the ban as unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2410\" data-end=\"2516\">Most recently, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upi.com\/Top_News\/World-News\/2025\/03\/25\/japan-osaka-high-court-same-sex-marriage-unconstitutional\/7731742956494\/\">Japan&#8217;s Osaka High Court<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/japan-lgbtq-samesex-marriage-ruling-nagoya-court-32d9b9ef069afae58e33b643a6ac497d\">Nagoya High Court<\/a> delivered similar decisions in March 2025.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2518\" data-end=\"2547\">This is a developing story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Japanese government has expanded legal protections to same-sex couples. According to The Japan Times, the government has decided to recognise same-sex couples as being in &#8220;de facto marriages&#8221; under\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7093,"featured_media":331374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[205,532],"tags":[343,2419],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Japan expands protections for same-sex couples<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In win for LGBTQIA+ rights, the Japanese government has extended rights for same-sex couples.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/life\/japan-expands-protections-for-same-sex-couples\/\" \/>\n<meta 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