Major opposition parties in Japan submitted a bill yesterday (3 June), calling for marriage equality. The move comes under a week after Taiwan secured the position to be first in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage.

Behind the bill are the Constitutional Democratic Party and Japanese Communist Party and the left-wing bloc has proposed a gender-neutral marital policy, hoping to persuade lawmakers, including ones from the conservative Liberal Democratic Party.

However, the bill faces a legislative hurdle in the form of Article 24 of the Japanese constitution, which states that ‘Marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintained through mutual cooperation with the equal rights of husband and wife as a basis.’

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