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In a groundbreaking decision, Osaka High Court ruled that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. This marks a significant step forward for LGBTQ+ rights in Japan. The ruling, delivered on March 25, 2025, challenges Japan’s longstanding legal stance that only recognizes marriage between a man and a woman.
This decision overturns a previous ruling from the Osaka District Court, which had upheld the ban. The High Court found that denying same-sex couples the right to marry violates the equality clause in Japan’s Constitution. Article 14 of the Constitution states that, “All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin.” This guarantees equality under the law, and the court stated that excluding same-sex couples from marriage fails to uphold this fundamental right.
Further, the ruling also found that the marriage ban contradicts Article 24, which declares that family laws “shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes.”
LGBTQ+ activists and legal experts see this ruling as a turning point in the fight for marriage equality in Japan. Although the verdict does not immediately legalize same-sex marriage, it increases pressure on lawmakers to amend the Civil Code and allow equal marriage rights for all. Currently, Japan is the only G7 nation that does not recognize same-sex unions at the national level. Some local governments, including Tokyo, have implemented partnership certificates that grant limited legal benefits to same-sex couples, but these do not provide the full rights and protections of marriage.
The case was brought by several same-sex couples who argued that the ban causes unnecessary hardship, including lack of spousal rights, inheritance benefits, and parental recognition. “What should be questioned is the rationality in excluding same-sex couples from the marriage system,” the plaintiffs claimed. “Legalizing gay marriage would make more people happy, while it would make no one unhappy.”
This ruling marks the fifth time a Japanese court has declared the country’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional, following similar decisions from the high courts in Sapporo, Tokyo, Fukuoka, and Nagoya. Read here for more information.
It is the “Domino Effect”: once one falls, the rest will begin to fall until all fall. Globalization at its finest!
also, Japan is probably the most westernized Asian country so it would mimic the western nations? this recognition is more about propaganda than actual equal rights?
Good for them! Keep up the fight.
The thought that we could lose that right here because of unnatural people’s demands makes me livid.
Japan took this long?
better late than never?
BRAVO!