TOKYO – A Japanese court ruled for the first time that the country’s constitution gives same-sex couples the right to enjoy the legal benefits of marriage, an innovative decision in a region of the world that generally prohibits same-sex marriage.
The district court in the city of Sapporo was hearing a case filed by gay couples seeking a marriage license. The three-judge panel said the government’s refusal to grant them a license violated the Japanese constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment under the law. However, the court said that the plaintiffs were not entitled to damages.
Other district courts in Japan are hearing similar cases, and Wednesday’s ruling is subject to appeal, which means that the final resolution of the issue will not yet be reached.
The three-judge panel said that while Japan’s parliament had ample scope to make laws on marriage, “it has exceeded the limits of agency” through its discriminatory treatment of same-sex couples. He said the current law was based on now discredited notions of homosexuality as a disease.
The court left open the possibility for Parliament to create a separate same-sex marriage or union system. He said that if such a system provided same-sex couples with legal protection as the current marriage system does for heterosexual couples, he could pass the constitutional test.