Thirteen gay couples on Thursday filed Japan\u2019s first lawsuits seeking to force the government to recognize same-sex marriage, arguing that their constitutional right to equality had been violated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Holding banners saying \u201cMarriage for All Japan,\u201d six couples walked into Tokyo District Court to file their cases, with similar cases filed by three couples in Osaka, one in Nagoya and three in Sapporo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One plaintiff, Kenji Aiba, standing next to his partner, Ken Kozumi, told reporters that he would \u201cfight this war together with sexual minorities all around Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Aiba and Mr. Kozumi have held on to a marriage certificate they signed at their wedding party in 2013, anticipating that Japan would emulate other advanced nations and legalize same-sex unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That day has yet to come, and legally they are just friends, even though they have lived as a couple for more than five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRight now we are both in good health and able to work, but what if either of us has an accident or becomes ill? We are not allowed to be each other\u2019s guarantors for medical treatment, or to be each other\u2019s heir,\u201d Mr. Kozumi, a 45-year-old office worker, said in a recent interview with his partner, Mr. Aiba, 40. \u201cProgress in Japan has been too slow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten Japanese municipalities have enacted \u201cpartnership\u201d ordinances for same-sex couples to make it easier for them to rent apartments together, among other things, but they are not legally binding. Japanese laws are currently interpreted as allowing marriage only between a man and a woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a society where pressure to conform is strong, many gay people hide their sexuality, fearing prejudice at home, school or work. The L.G.B.T. equal rights movement has lagged in Japan because people who are quietly not conforming to conventional notions of sexuality have been so marginalized that the issue has not been considered a human rights problem, experts say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMany people don\u2019t even think of a possibility that their neighbors, colleagues or classmates may be sexual minorities,\u201d said Mizuho Fukushima, a lawyer-turned-lawmaker and an expert on gender and human rights issues. \u201cAnd the pressure to follow a conservative family model, in which heterosexual couples are supposed to marry and have children, is still strong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ultraconservative supporters have campaigned to restore a paternalistic society based on heterosexual marriages. The government has restarted moral education classes at schools to teach children family values and good deeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhether to allow same-sex marriage is an issue that affects the foundation of how families should be in Japan, which requires an extremely careful examination,\u201d Mr. Abe said in a statement last year.
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Thirteen gay couples on Thursday filed Japan\u2019s first lawsuits seeking to force the government to recognize same-sex marriage, arguing that their constitutional right to equality had been violated. Holding banners saying \u201cMarriage for All Japan,\u201d six couples walked into Tokyo District Court to file their cases, with similar cases filed by three couples in Osaka, one in Nagoya and three… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-3130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3131,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3130\/revisions\/3131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}