Thailand has just passed a ‘landmark’ marriage equality bill, which will pave the way for the recognition of same-sex unions in the Land of Smiles. The upper house in Bangkok comfortably approved the measure on Tuesday, and as soon as King Maha Vajiralongkorn signs it off Thailand will become the first Southeast Asian jurisdiction to formally legalise gay marriage.
Equality campaigners in Japan will be watching these developments closely. With a general election expected before November and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s scandal-wracked Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) administration under considerable pressure, advocates for same sex marriage in the one G7 country that still denies it, will have hopes that, following the Thai precedent, the issue will feature prominently.
Calls for change are not outright dismissed, just subtly deflected
They have other reasons for optimism. In March the Sapporo High Court ruled that denying same-sex marriage was ‘unconstitutional’, a judgement that doesn’t mandate change, but significantly weakens the government’s standard defence.
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