The District Court of the Japanese city of Sapporo (northern Hokkaido prefecture) on Wednesday ruled that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. This decision was the first in the jurisprudence of Japan.
“The refusal to grant same-sex couples the legal right to marry exceeds the powers of the legislature,” the court’s ruling argued, according to the Kyodo agency.
In Japan, in recent years, the discussion about the rights of the LGBT community has become more relevant. In several Japanese prefectures and counties, local authorities have already approved the conclusion of same-sex marriage, but these permits are symbolic and do not have formal force due to the lack of an appropriate legislative framework at the state level. In April 2017, authorities in Osaka, the country’s third-largest city, recognized for the first time the legal nature of adoption by same-sex couples.