Calls are growing in Japan for same-sex marriage to be legalized so LGBT couples can enjoy the same benefits that heterosexual couples do.
While six governments in Japan recognize same-sex partnerships, ensuring such couples the same treatment and entitlement to local services as married couples, most gay people still face discrimination when searching for public housing, visiting critically ill partners in hospitals or inheriting property, on the legal grounds that they are not family.
The U.S. Supreme Court recognized same-sex marriage as legal and deemed state-level bans unconstitutional in 2015, but the constitutional court of Taiwan ruled this year that the Civil Code, which stipulates that marriage is the legal union between a man and a woman, is unconstitutional.