Photo/Illutration Andrew High, left, speaks to reporters with his Japanese partner in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki after the Tokyo District Court rejected High’s request for a long-term resident visa on Sept. 30. (Yuri Murakami)

While same-sex couples of two foreigners can live together in Japan if one of them has residence visa status, a foreigner married to a Japanese same-sex partner can be denied a resident visa.

This inequality concerning the visa status of gay couples remains unaddressed. With a growing number of countries legalizing same-sex marriages, the government should prioritize tackling this problem.

In its Sept. 30 ruling on a case where a gay American man sought to obtain a visa to live with his Japanese partner, the Tokyo District Court said that the government’s failure to grant him a long-term residency status was illegal since it violates the constitutional principle of equality.

The justice and immigration control authorities should take the court’s decision seriously.

The American man has cried foul because he has been denied the right given to gay couples of two foreign nationals who have gotten married overseas with one of them holding residential status.

In the case of such a foreign gay couple, the partner is granted a visa of the “designated activities” category for a long stay.

But gay couples involving a Japanese partner are exempted from this special visa rule, which was introduced in 2013. That means it is difficult for the foreign partner of such gay couples to reside in Japan unless he or she obtains a resident visa based on his or her own occupation or other activities.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Andrew High, and his Japanese partner registered their marriage in the United States in 2015 after the U.S. Supreme Court recognized same-sex marriages. High filed the suit three years ago after his application for a long-term resident visa as the partner of a Japanese citizen was rejected.

The court pointed out that there is growing “demand for and interest in” same-sex marriages and same-sex partner systems and argued that Japanese-foreigner couples should be given equal treatment as foreigner-only couples.

The court criticized the current system in which the residence status visa of the designated activities category is not granted equally to all gay couples, including a partner with a residence visa status, for running counter to the spirit of the Constitution, which upholds the principle of equality under the law.

The court said High should have been granted a designated activities visa.

In this century, same-sex marriages have spread globally. There are now more than 30 countries and areas where same-sex marriages are legal, according to the citizens group Marriage For All Japan.

It is not uncommon for a Japanese national to be legally married to a same-sex partner overseas, the group says. But such Japanese-foreigner gay or lesbian couples face a major obstacle if they want to live together in Japan.

This issue has long been recognized by the government. During a 2018 session of the Upper House Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, then Foreign Minister Taro Kono said this was clearly wrong and the government was considering correcting the problem “in a forward-looking manner.”

But there has been no improvement in the situation, apparently due to the government’s negligence.

High and his Japanese partner have said they just want to live in Japan as a family. High can stay in Japan as a foreign resident by, for instance, obtaining a “business manager” visa as he actually did. But they should be granted the right to live in Japan as a family.

The designated activities visa, which the ruling said should have been granted to High, imposes certain restrictions on holders’ activities, such as they cannot work without permission from the immigration control authority.

The government should consider granting residence status as the spouse of a Japanese national to such foreign same-sex partners of Japanese citizens.

The right to family unity, which means families have the right to live together, has been established under international human rights law. Japan should not remain a country where this right is not recognized or respected.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 10

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