TOKYO -- Japan's government is under renewed pressure to extend marriage rights to LGBTQ couples after the Sapporo High Court in Hokkaido ruled its failure to do so violates three clauses of the country's constitution.
In the most decisive victory yet for Japan's same-sex marriage campaign, the court found the current lack of legal protections for same-sex couples to be a violation of the constitution's Article 14, Clause 1, which enshrines the right to equality for all, and Clauses 1 and 2 of Article 24, which state that marriage should be based on "mutual consent of the sexes" and "individual dignity."
