Japan is the only G7 nation that does not allow same-sex marriage, and its constitution defines marriage as based on “the mutual consent of both sexes.
“This is actually a fairly positive ruling,” says Nobuhito Sawasaki, one of the lawyers involved in the case. Japan currently does not permit same-sex couples to marry or inherit each other’s assets, such as a house they may have shared, and gives them no parental rights to each other’s children. But the group, which unfurled a banner outside the courthouse saying “A step forward for Marriage Equality” after the ruling was read, said they were encouraged.