The Supreme Court overturned a lower court ruling on Tuesday, stating that same-sex partners should be eligible for survivors benefits when one of them become victims of a crime.

The ruling said same-sex partners should be deemed equal to common law couples who are eligible for survivors benefits as is stipulated in a law on benefits for victims of crime.

Benefits are available if the person dies or is heavily injured to the point where that person will suffer disabilities from the incident.

It is the first time the Supreme Court has reached a judgment on survivors benefits for crime victims who have same-sex partners.

The trial involves Yasuhide Uchiyama, 49, who applied to the Aichi Prefectural Government for survivors benefits that are available to spouses of crime victims after his partner was killed in December 2014. They had been living together for over 20 years.

“To sum up, my current feelings are that I am relieved. I had been anxious for a long time on whether I would receive support,” Uchiyama said in a statement read out by his lawyer during a news conference. “This time, the Supreme Court recognized that heterosexual couples and same-sex couples are the same. Now, I can rest easy.”

Although Uchiyama was present at the news conference, his lawyer Harumi Okamura read out the statement due to health reasons.

According to the law, a victim’s spouses, children, parents, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren are deemed eligible for benefits. But it also stipulates those in a “de facto marital relationship” are eligible for compensation without specifying whether this includes same-sex couples.

Survivors benefits are meant to ensure the livelihood of a murder victim's next of kin. The Supreme Court on Tuesday sent Uchiyama's case back to the high court to judge whether he should be granted the survivors benefits.

The focus of the trial was whether the definition of a “de facto marital relationship” should include same-sex couples.

Presiding Judge Michiharu Hayashi said in the ruling that same-sex partners should be eligible for benefits because they face the same emotional and financial distress as hetrosexual couples in a “de facto marital relationship.”

But Yukihiko Imasaki, another of the five Supreme Court judges who deliberated on the case, disagreed, saying the plaintiff’s claim should be rejected. Imasaki said the decision to grant such benefits to same-sex couples would be “too hasty" considering the lack of social consensus on the issue.

Uchiyama’s lawyers pointed out that a Nagoya court trying a separate criminal trial on the murder case recognized Uchiyama's relationship with his partner as “equivalent to a married couple.”

However, in 2020, the Nagoya District Court dismissed the plaintiff’s claim for survivors benefits, saying that the relationship between same-sex couples should not be deemed equivalent to those of married heterosexual couples.

The Nagoya High Court upheld the district court ruling in August 2022 on similar grounds.

While Uchiyama’s lawyers said in a statement that the ruling is “highly commendable,” they also expressed their disappointment that the Supreme Court decided to send the plaintiff's case back to the Nagoya High Court, where it will be tried again.

The lawyers urged the high court to come to a decision promptly and provide Uchiyama with survivors benefits, saying that it is “extremely regrettable” that he has gone without benefits for so long.

The verdict comes on the heels of the Sapporo High Court’s ruling earlier this month that said not recognizing same-sex marriage is unconstitutional — the strongest wording used so far.

In late 2014, Uchiyama’s partner was murdered by a man who was stalking Uchiyama after his partner warned the stalker to stop. The stalker was sentenced to 14 years in prison, which he is currently serving.

Following the death of his partner, Uchiyama quit his job due to emotional distress and sold their longtime home at a reduced price due to it being the site of the murder, resulting in financial hardship, according to his lawyers.