Japan’s turning point for LGBTQ+ rights

This post is part of Global Voices’ June 2026 Spotlight series, “Gender Diversity.” This series offers insight into gender diversity and how it is being threatened, protected, and preserved around the world. You can support this coverage by donating here.
The streets of Tokyo have transformed into a vibrant sea of rainbow flags, sharp techno beats, and thousands of chanting voices for Tokyo Rainbow Pride this June. This year’s Pride Month is more than a celebratory festival of visibility; the atmosphere feels electrified as the Japanese Supreme Court is expected to issue its first unified constitutional ruling on same-sex marriage, and LGBTQ+ communities are taking to the streets to push for equal rights to marriage with the slogan: “May love prevail in the Supreme Court” (最高裁で愛が勝つ).
Legal battle: Marriage for all
The Supreme Court ruling will settle constitutional debates among lower district courts over whether the Japanese Civil Code's current exclusion of same-sex marriage violates the Japanese Constitution in early 2027.
Japan’s legal battle for the right to equal marriage began on February 14, 2019, with 13 same-sex couples simultaneously filing lawsuits against the Japanese government in district courts across Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, and Sapporo.
In March 2024, the Sapporo High Court first ruled that the provisions of the Civil Code and the Family Register Act that do not allow same-sex couples to become families are unconstitutional. Four other district high courts hold similar rulings, and the prevailing view is that the current system violates Article 14 (equality under the law), Article 13 (the right to the pursuit of happiness), and Article 24, Section 2 (individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes) of the Constitution of Japan.
However, on November 28, 2025, a Tokyo High Court ruled against its peers, holding that same-sex couples are not included in the constitutional definition of marriage and that any change to that definition should be the responsibility of Japan’s National Diet.
With the support of the LGBT+ activist group Marriage for All Japan, the plaintiffs have brought their case to the Japanese Supreme Court for appeal. As explained by legal scholar Yasuhiko Watanabe, the Tokyo High Court’s ruling would grant “unchecked discretion to the conservative government.”
The Japanese government's conservative stance
Japan remains the only G7 nation that does not provide comprehensive national legal protections or marriage rights for same-sex couples.
Despite data from both the conservative Yomiuri and the liberal Asahi showing solid majorities in support of same-sex marriage, at 65 percent and 72 percent, respectively, in 2023, Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) remain unsupportive of same-sex marriage. During her election campaign in September 2025, Takaichi also referred to the definition of marriage to argue against same-sex marriage rights:
私は基本的には同性婚には反対の立場だ。憲法で結婚は両性の同意によるとされている。だから、現時点で同性婚に賛同する立場ではない。
I am fundamentally opposed to same-sex marriage. The Constitution defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. Therefore, at this time I do not support same-sex marriage.
Currently, same-sex couples are excluded from spousal benefits in over 100 laws that involve insurance, pensions, etc. They rely on regional partnership certification systems, which began in Tokyo in 2015 and have since spread to more than 500 regions, that offer same-sex couples limited, non-binding benefits, such as hospital visitation rights.
In response to the legal challenges in recent years, instead of amending the existing marriage law to grant sexual minority equal rights, the conservative government has recognized registered same-sex couples as “de facto marriage status” in a few dozen laws, and passed an LGBTQ+ Understanding Law in 2023 to promote public understanding of sexual minorities and prevent “unfair discrimination.” Only after three years of stalling did the government recently roll out its first national plan to raise awareness and strengthen support systems for the LGBTQ+ community.
However, the recognition of “de facto marriage” through the partnership certification system would institutionalize discrimination, legal scholar Yasuhiko Watanabe argued:
仮に、事実婚制度の整備によって配偶者控除や相続権などの不利益が一定程度解消されるとしても、婚姻と区別された制度にとどまる限り、そこには象徴的な格差が残ります。異性のカップルだけが婚姻の制度に属し、同性カップルはそこから「排除された」別の制度に属するという構図は、社会的に“セカンドクラス”という印象を与えかねません。
Even if the ‘de facto marriage’ system could, to a certain extent, address some disadvantages, such as the spousal tax deduction and inheritance rights, as long as it remains a separate system distinct from marriage, it will institutionalise a symbolic segregation. If only heterosexual couples belong to the marriage system and same-sex couples are ‘excluded’ into a separate system, it risks creating a ‘second-class’ stigma [among the sexual minorities].
Moreover, even with the same-sex partnership registration and “de facto marriage” system, same-sex couples cannot enter into the national household registration system (Koseki), which is structured around a heterosexual norm, with a wife, a husband, and their unmarried offspring under a single surname to track the family lineage. In Japan, rather than the individual, the family is the administrative unit, and the legal status, rights, and welfare of citizenship and parentage are registered through the Koseki system. Being excluded from the household registration system, same-sex couples could not enjoy automatic inheritance, spousal tax deduction, spousal visa, child adoption, etc.
Yet, within the National Diet, conservative lawmakers are resistant to changing the marriage law, fearing it would lead to amending the Koseki system and thereby trigger a domino effect that would rewrite the nationality law and hundreds of civil laws related to government administration.
Can love win?
LGBTQ+ activists considered the Japanese Supreme Court’s monumental decision to bring the legal disputes to the 15-Justice Grand Bench a significant move to break the decade-long political stagnation. If the Grand Bench rules the current marriage law unconstitutional, the court may impose a deadline for the National Diet to rewrite the marriage and Koseki systems, or to establish a civic union registration system with a separate household registration system. The worst scenario is to follow the Tokyo High Court verdict and let the National Diet determine the mechanism for protecting sexual minorities’ equal rights.
Since May 2026, Marriage for All Japan has launched a nationwide “Love Wins” campaign to demonstrate public support for full same-sex marriage rights and vowed to spread the message with the slogan, “May love prevail in the Supreme Court,” across 47 prefectures during Pride Month.