Public support for same-sex marriage has surged in the last few years, making it seem suddenly within reach. Sato, his partner and five other couples seeking recognition of same-sex marriage are the first of their kind in Japan. In many ways, there has been dramatic change. The couple’s story epitomizes the contradictions that shape the lives of gay people across Japan. His family and co-workers do not know he is gay, and he hopes - at least for now - to keep it that way, fearing discrimination in his workplace. Somewhere in the courtroom, his partner sat silently watching, hoping to go unnoticed. If the law is changed to allow same-sex marriage, he said, perhaps “we’ll make a society where the next generation doesn’t have to feel that way.” To a packed room, he described the anxiety he had felt as a young man, struggling to express his sexuality in Japan’s restrictive society. TOKYO - Ikuo Sato stood in front of a Tokyo court in April and told the world he was gay.
