* farther not father ahaha
i think your reasoning is very interesting. i'm from a country where same sex marriage doesn't exist either, but, same as Japan, there's a kind of certificate that "equals" marriage in some civil matters.
in the case of my country, i think it has a lot to do with the constitution, made while we were under a dictatorship and redacted in the 80's. the first article of the constitution talks about how everyone is born with dignity and rights, and talks about how the family is the core of the country and one of the things to defend.
now, decades later but still under the same constitution, there's this debate about how this part of the first article has changed: the family in the 80's is pretty different from the actual family, and of course that article refers to the normative family: mom, dad, kids; but things have changed.
i know it's very specific, but maybe for Japan is something like that: defending the family, core of the country. plus, in non-white countries is very important to keep tradition and some cultural rituals, and, though i know very very little about Japan's culture, i assume it's part of trying to mantain part of their culture. all of this added to the birth control, i think it kind of makes sense, knowing that it is also a conservative country so the opening to new horizons is very slow and tentative.
with the incest or semi-incest, i think it goes kind of for the same path: if they're not blood related and they're straight, then legally there shouldn't be any trouble, and of course it depends in the context. in a lot of places, marrying your first, second or third cousin when you're living in the countryside is pretty normal, so that may be part of it?
hope i didn't say too much things, i thought this was pretty interesting :) take care!
I think I agree with you cuz why make this so called “partnership certificate” if they could just make it a legal marriage certificate for the same sex I didn’t search it yet but yeah maybe Japan wants to prevent low birth rate but if that’s not the reason well daaaammmnnn thatS homophobic ┑(￣Д ￣)┍
Well, if you wanna talk about sexual freedom than be it same-sex or incestuous relations both should be allowed. However the problem with incestuos relationships lie in the problems leading from inter-breeding which is why most countries and cultures condemn them and call them taboo.. The stronger genes get stronger while weaker genes weaken even further in the next generations which is why they taboo it so people would shy away.. If I have to give you an example it would be the disease Thallassamina, if two people in a family have minor genes for the disease they live a very normal life but if they have a child who has two such genes, the child would be Thallassamia major and have a poor quality of life.. Technically, you can't tell people you can have incestuous sexual relationships but can't have kids even if you say so there will be 'accidents' so prevention is better than cure. In case of Japan, they always wanted to strengthen their existence.. Also for quite a while in the past Japan was closed off to the world so they may not think that inter-breeding should be a problem.. Even today foreigners are not always treated well in Japan. This also means they aren't more open to the concept of 'homo-sexuality'.. Even if they allow 'partner-certificates' its only in some areas/cities and I'd it is thanks to globalization.. They have to show they aren't too conservative to the outsider while the native or orthodox Japanese may not exactly be a fan of the concept so they can't go all the way and legalize it.. Its all about politics, be it internal or international..
After reading a lot of BL manga depicting incest or semi-incest* throughout the years, I wanted to see how law deals with these cases in Japan and it turns out that, according to Wikipedia, “consensual incest between adults is legal in Japan.” I already knew that first-cousins marriages were allowed but it didn’t cross my mind that relationships between close family members were legal too. But in those cases they don’t need to marry, I guess? They are already in the same family register. Ok, the last thing I said was meant to be a joke XD a very bad joke I think… next.
I’m surprised that the law allows such incestuous acts but doesn’t allow same-sex marriages. Maybe it’s because Japan has a very low birth rate and they don’t want to make it drop even father?
I read that same-sex relationships are legal, only marriages are impossible. Since 2015 Japan offers same-sex couples a so-called “partnership certificate” which is stated to be equivalent to marriage. “This license is not legally recognized as a marriage certificate, but is a useful tool in civil matters such as hospital visitation rights and housing”, they say. If they allow this kind of licence, why don’t allow a marriage certificate?
The only thought that crosses my mind is that, maybe, the state wants to discourage people in choosing same-sex relationships by suggesting that opposite-sex relationships are the norm (you can marry) and same-sex relationships are not (you can’t marry.) You know how some people, even though they know they like the same sex, choose to marry the opposite sex because they want to live a normal life? Then, they end up having kids, and so the birth rate doesn’t drop. Maybe the state is counting on that? If it’s like this, I’m pretty sure that if they could, they wouldn’t have allowed even that certificate, but they were pressured into doing so.
Could you tell me your thoughts about the existence of such a difference between how incest and same-sex relationships are treated by the law** in Japan. Do you think the reason is what I said above too? Do you think is something else?
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Please don’t comment about what you think is wrong, right, bad, good regarding incest. I read enough about what people think in the comments of some manga.
Another thing. I usually don’t talk much, and my communication skills are pretty low. I know that I’m ignorant in many fields too, so what I said above could make sense or could be a very stupid topic to bring up. Please don’t say that what I said is right or wrong, but please say if your opinion and thoughts are the same or different from mine.
*with the term ‘semi-incest’ I mean step-brother x step-brother, step-son x step father or something like that.
**note that I said ‘law’ and not ‘people.’ I know that discrimination exists in both cases.