Please join us for a special LLAN PRIDE webinar event featuring Andrew High and attorney Masako Suzuki to discuss their ongoing efforts to establish equal immigration rights for married binational same-sex couples. They will join us with other guests to discuss recent developments in this area as well as Andrew’s successful petition to obtain a long term visa.
Andrew and Kohei were married in the United States in 2015 and have been living in Japan for more than ten years. Prior to and after getting married, Andrew sought to obtain a long-term visa to reside and work legally in the country. His application was routinely denied by the Japanese immigration authorities, and in 2019 he brought suit to overturn the rejections, insisting that his status as a spouse of a Japanese national he was entitled to the same protections afforded heterosexual couples with his marital status. The case wound its way through Japan’s court system before immigration authorities reversed course in March of 2023 and granted him a 1-year long-term visa in response to a Tokyo District Court ruling in September of last year which held that he should be granted a visa under the current system.
More information on Andrew and Kohei’s story can be found here
LLAN will be co-hosting the event with DLA Piper on Friday, June 30th from 10am JST on Teams. There will be a discussion followed by some Q&A.
