On 13 December 2024, the Fukuoka High Court issued a judgment that provisions of the Civil Code and other laws that do not recognize same-sex marriage violate Articles 13, 14(1), and 24(2) of the Constitution of Japan. This judgment is the first time in which a court has held that the failure to recognize same-sex marriage in law violates Article 13 (the constitutional right to pursue happiness). The judgement also stated that inequality caused by not allowing same-sex couples to use the legal marriage system cannot be resolved by expanding the partnership system or introducing a registered partnership system, and unless same-sex couples are allowed to use the same legal marriage system as opposite-sex couples, the violation of Article 14(1) (equality under the law) of the Constitution will not be resolved. LLAN members prepared the English full translation of this decision. (Original Japanese Judgment)
We are grateful to LLAN members from Ashurst, Boyd & Moore Executive Search, Clifford Chance, Miura & Partners, Morgan Stanley MUFG, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and Tokyo International Law Office who prepared the translation.
