Overview

• On September 30, the government decided that same-sex partners may be treated as de facto spouses under nine additional statutes, covering disaster condolence payments.
• The additions raise the total number of laws reinterpreted to include same-sex partners to 33 after an earlier batch of 24 in January.
• The Cabinet Office will notify municipalities of the new interpretations, which will not be applied retroactively to past disasters.
• The move implements last March’s Supreme Court judgment that phrases like persons in circumstances similar to marriage can include same-sex partners.
• Junko Mihara announced the decision, and a separate government review found many related statutes, including major social insurance laws, will not include same-sex partners under this interpretation.