{"id":11519,"date":"2018-12-31T15:06:13","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T09:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=11519"},"modified":"2018-12-31T15:06:13","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T09:21:13","slug":"ten-same-sex-couples-to-sue-japanese-government-over-marriage-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/ten-same-sex-couples-to-sue-japanese-government-over-marriage-equality\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten same-sex couples to sue Japanese government over marriage equality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu (Pahichan) December 31 &#8211; Ten same-sex couples will file a lawsuit against the Japanese government in a bid for recognition towards marriage equality.<\/p>\n<p>The couples, who will file a joint lawsuit in February, reportedly argue that Japanese law doesn\u2019t put into consideration the equal rights of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pinknews.co.uk\/2018\/11\/06\/thailand-same-sex-civil-unions-2018\/\">same-sex couples<\/a>\u00a0and should be amended accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>Article 24 of Japan\u2019s Constitution states that \u201cmarriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lawyers for the couples argue that the wording means that marriage equality should be officially recognised.<\/p>\n<p>According to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2018\/12\/28\/national\/crime-legal\/10-sex-couples-sue-japanese-government-marriage-equality\/#.XCeH2lz7RPY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Japan Times<\/a>, The government has meanwhile indicated that marriage should only apply to heterosexual couples, arguing that the term \u201chusband and wife\u201d is used in the civic and family registration laws. The Japanese government are said to believe that this clearly refers to a marriage between a man and a woman and would, therefore, be unable to accept applications from gay and lesbian couples.<\/p>\n<p>Shinya Maezono, one of the lawyers to represent the couples, said: \u201cWe want our call to be widespread so that the freedom to marry will be recognized for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Japan is generally seen as an LGBT-friendly country, despite a country-wide lack of marriage equality<\/h2>\n<p>In\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pinknews.co.uk\/2018\/06\/19\/japan-genderless-uniforms-schools\/\">Japan<\/a>, eight municipal jurisdictions, including Fukuoka and Osaka, recognise civil partnerships but this is not yet a country-wide law. However, the country is generally seen to be supportive of the LGBT community.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit follows\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pinknews.co.uk\/2018\/10\/09\/tokyo-adopts-anti-discrimination-ban-protect-lgbt-community\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the recent announcement<\/a>\u00a0that Tokyo would be banning anti-discrimination and hate crime to help protect the LGBT community as the capital gears up for the\u00a02020 Olympic Games. The move was\u00a0approved by the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly and is due to come into effect in April.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_271182\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-271182\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pinknews.co.uk\/images\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-955243250-650x440.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.pinknews.co.uk\/images\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-955243250-650x440.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.pinknews.co.uk\/images\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-955243250-768x520.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.pinknews.co.uk\/images\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-955243250-1200x813.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.pinknews.co.uk\/images\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-955243250-784x530.jpg 784w, https:\/\/www.pinknews.co.uk\/images\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-955243250-927x628.jpg 927w, https:\/\/www.pinknews.co.uk\/images\/2018\/05\/GettyImages-955243250.jpg 1600w\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"440\" \/><figcaption class=\"op-vertical-below op-left op-small wp-caption-text\"><i>A couple takes part in the Tokyo Rainbow Pride Parade in Tokyo, Japan (Tomohiro Ohsumi\/Getty Images)<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Despite this, Mio Sugita, an MP for the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pinknews.co.uk\/2018\/10\/27\/mio-sugita-japan-homophobic-uproar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">caused outrage in July<\/a>\u00a0when she said: \u201cIf we recognise different sexual interests, then it will lead to calls for allowing marriage between siblings, marriages between parents and children, or even marriages to pets or machinery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sugita later said\u00a0she \u201chad no intention at all to discriminate against same-sex couples or to deny their human rights,\u201d but refused to retract or apologise for her comments.<\/p>\n<p>The ten couples are believed to be seeking compensation from the government.\u00a0The lawsuit is due to be filed in district courts throughout the country, including Tokyo and Nagoya.<\/p>\n<p>Source : Pink News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kathmandu (Pahichan) December 31 &#8211; Ten same-sex couples will file a lawsuit against the Japanese government in a bid for recognition towards marriage equality.<br \/>\nThe couples, who will file a joint lawsuit in February, reportedly argue that Japanese law doesn\u2019t put into consideration the equal rights of\u00a0same-sex couples\u00a0and should be amended accordingly.<br \/>\nArticle 24 of Japan\u2019s Constitution states that \u201cmarriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes.\u201d<br \/>\nLawyers for the couples argue that the wording means that marriage equality should be officially recognised.<br \/>\nAccording to\u00a0The Japan Times, The government has &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":11520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,621,490,11],"tags":[524,894],"class_list":["post-11519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-issue","category-news","category-slider","category-world","tag-lgbt","tag-same-sex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11521,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11519\/revisions\/11521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}