Grand Bench Decides on Same Sex Marriage

Third Petty Bench of the Supreme Court accepted six lawsuits on same sex marriage and handed them over to Grand Bench which makes important constitutional decisions. High Courts that made decisions on those cases have mostly been supportive for marriages of couples who share the same sex. If the Supreme Court sentences approval for same sex marriage, the government of Japan will need to guarantee them a right for married couples. 

Five high courts in Sapporo, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Nagoya and Osaka have made decisions on those lawsuits a couple of years ago. Tokyo High Court made different decisions in two of those six cases. Totally, five decisions recognized that the laws which do not approve same sex marriage would violate provisions of the Constitution of Japan. Only Tokyo High Court decided that current laws are constitutional in the second lawsuit in Tokyo.

 

Article 13 of the Constitution guarantees the people “right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness,” while Article 14 does equality under the law. “Marriage shall be based on the mutual consent of both sexes,” says Paragraph 1 of Article 24, and Paragraph 2 of the same article determines that “With regard to choice of spouse, property rights, inheritance, choice of domicile, divorce and other matters pertaining to marriage and the family, laws shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes.”

 

Sapporo High Court decided in March 2024 that current laws effectively denying same sex marriage would violate Article 14 and both paragraphs of Article 24, contemplating that the constitution approved same sex marriage as freedom of relationship between the people in light of dignity of individual. The decision of Fukuoka High Court in December 2024 found that a provision of the Civil Code that disregarded same sex marriage would violate Article 13 of the constitution.

 

On the other hand, Tokyo High Court solely ruled out same sex marriage. Based on the situation of society in Japan when the constitution was enacted in 1947, the court recognized that Article 24 supposed a marriage as relationship between a couple with different sex. It also argued that defining marriage from viewpoint of reproduction would be reasonable.

 

Although five sentences out of six of high courts’ decision approved same sex marriage, the government of Japan has not taken any measure to guarantee the same sex couples right for spouses. The Diet has also taken no action to legislate related laws. It is obvious that conservative lawmakers have been opposing same sex marriage, arguing that it would change traditional shape of families.

 

Japan Federation of Bar Associations submitted their opinion to the prime minister and speakers of both chambers of the Diet in 2019, which demanded the government to approve same sex marriage and to legislate laws for it. It is likely that the government of Japan will face stronger pressure for it, if the Supreme Court approve same sex marriage.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LDP Kickoffs Presidential Election

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)   kicked off  its presidential election campaign on September 22 and five lawmakers officially submitted their candidacy to the party. Having lost majority in both Houses of the Diet under the leadership of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the presidential election should be about how to regain power through reform of the party. Nevertheless, the candidates do not talk much about the reform, rather focusing on economic policies for the people or maneuvers to attract the opposition parties.   Those five candidates are former Minister on Economic Security Takayuki Kobayashi, former LDP Secretary General Toshimitsu Motegi, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, former Minister on Economic Security Sanae Takaichi and Miniser of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi.   Kobayashi insists on temporary income tax cut with a fixed rate, which return is bigger for high-income taxpayers than them with low-income. Identifying h...
Read more

Defense Ministers Meet in Seoul

Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani visited Republic of Korea and had a meeting with ROK Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back. It was the first time for Japanese defense minister to have a bilateral ministerial meeting in these ten years. Both ministers reconfirmed importance of trilateral security cooperation including the United States to deal with another trilateral cooperation by China, Russia and North Korea.   In the  press conference  after the meeting, Nakatani stressed importance of maintaining bilateral relationship between Japan and ROK, or Japan-ROK-U.S. relationship in a volatile security environment. Both ministers agreed on promoting discussion by both defense authorities and exchange of personnel. They also agreed on further cooperation in cutting edge technologies including artificial intelligence, unmanned system or the space. They will maintain joint exercise called “Freedom Edge,” in which multiple countries participate.   Their bilateral relati...
Read more

Contaminated Soil to Prime Minister’s Residence

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet discussed how the radioactively contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture would be treated and decided some of it should be used in Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo. Although the soil needs to be removed from Fukushima with legal requirement, the government of Japan has not found anywhere it should go. Ishiba administration hopes that the decision will pave the way for any local community to accept the soil.   Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant emitted a huge amount of radiation into the air, which contaminated the land surface around the site, in the severe accident in East Japan Great Earthquake in 2011. The contaminated soil in Fukushima prefecture was stocked in the intermediate stockyard built in the towns of Futaba and Okuma, where the power plant is located. The government promised the people in Fukushima to remove the soil out of Fukushima prefecture within thirty years, when it decided to build the stockyard in 2014.   The total a...
Read more