The Osaka High Court has become the fifth high court in Japan to rule that current laws prohibiting same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, but lawmakers remain slow to respond.

The ruling, handed down on March 25 was in a same-sex marriage lawsuit that sought to “ensure the freedom of marriage for all people.”

The Osaka High Court concluded that the Civil Code and other provisions that prohibit same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, unreasonable, seriously undermine individual dignity and violate equality under the law.

This is an unusual development, with all five high courts that addressed same-sex marriage lawsuits finding the provisions unconstitutional.

Judicial decisions will now move to the Supreme Court, but will the political situation change?

It has been less than a decade since the human rights of sexual minorities became a national political issue.

A major impetus came in February 2015, when Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward announced that it would create a partnership ordinance to officially recognize same-sex couples.

“It is hopeful news. We need to remove difficulties in the lives of same-sex couples,” an opposition party member said at a plenary session of the Upper House immediately following the Shibuya Ward announcement.

The lawmaker also asked then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the relationship between same-sex marriage and the Constitution.

Abe replied, “Under the current Constitution, it is not envisioned that same-sex couples will be allowed to enter into marriage.”

The following month, a nonpartisan Diet members’ caucus for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, chaired by then Lower House member Hiroshi Hase, was launched.

The month after that, the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan enlisted a working group to study LGBT policies, which was chaired by the party’s Lower House member Chinami Nishimura.

In response to this trend, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party established a special committee on sexual orientation and gender identity in February 2016.

The chairman of the committee was Keiji Furuya, a veteran member of the conservative faction of the LDP.

At the first committee meeting, Furuya said, “The movement to legalize same-sex marriage is incompatible with our sound efforts.”

That year, the LDP outlined a bill to promote LGBT understanding.

At the same time, in a pamphlet titled “The LDP’s approach,” the party clearly stated that “the basic principle of Article 24 of the Constitution, ‘Marriage shall be solely based on the consent of the two sexes,’ remains unchanged, and acceptance of same-sex marriage is incompatible with it.”

According to an LDP official who is familiar with the situation at the time said, the LDP’s main support groups such as the Nippon Kaigi, a conservative movement group, and the Jinja Honcho (main shrine headquarters), were strongly opposed to same-sex marriage.

“(The party) thought that if it even mentioned same-sex marriage, it would not be able to discuss how to promote understanding (for sexual minorities) at all,” the official said.

Some conservatives even expressed alarm at the activities of the special committee on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Hidetsugu Yagi, a professor of constitutional law at Reitaku University who serves on the policy committee of the Shinto Seiji Renmei (Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership), described the special committee as “unguarded, inviting LGBT people and listening to their views.”

Nine years have passed since that time.

In 2019, same-sex marriage lawsuits were filed in five district courts across Japan.

Since then, the Civil Code and other provisions that prohibit same-sex marriage have been ruled to be “unconstitutional” or “in an unconstitutional state.”

Abe, after stepping down as prime minister, strongly opposed the bill to promote LGBT understanding. However, it was enacted in 2023, and for the first time, the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity were included in the law.

In Asahi Shimbun surveys, the percentage of respondents who said that same-sex marriage “should be recognized” by law rose from 41 percent in 2015 to 65 percent in 2021, and reached 72 percent in 2023.

However, the debate on same-sex marriage remains shelved within the LDP.

In his own book, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba once wrote about the issue: “From the perspective of guaranteeing fundamental human rights, as long as there are citizens whose rights are being obstructed, it is necessary to enact legislation as soon as possible, without having to wait for the Supreme Court’s decision.”

However, there is no sign that the LDP under his leadership will move forward on the issue.

At a news conference on March 25, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi commented on the five high courts’ decisions on the same-sex marriage lawsuits, saying, “All of these decisions have not yet been finalized, and we will closely monitor the Supreme Court’s decision as well.”

A conservative member of the LDP called these high court decisions “insane.”

The member argued, “The ‘order’ of society should be protected rather than the rights of individuals. I hope that the Supreme Court will make a wise decision, but the elite justices do not have the background to do so.”

The member also predicted, “When the intraparty debate on same-sex marriage begins, there will be a heck of a lot more conflict on a different level than there was about the law to promote LGBT understanding.”