In a rare move, the Justice Ministry has revoked a deportation order for a gay Taiwanese man who remained in Japan illegally after overstaying his visa, apparently giving consideration to his longtime partnership with a Japanese national.

The man had been suing the government over the denial of special permission to reside in Japan. He has now decided to withdraw the suit.

Last week, the ministry’s Immigration Bureau granted the man a one-year resident visa after the Tokyo District Court suggested that it review the order, his lawyers revealed Friday. Japan does not have a specific visa status for LGBT foreign nationals in relationships with Japanese people.

“I hope this decision will help change the situation, and will help step up LGBT-inclusive efforts,” Yasushi Nagano, an attorney representing the man, told a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.

To their knowledge, this was the first case in which a non-Japanese person was granted special permission to stay in Japan in consideration of a relationship with a Japanese partner of the same sex, Nagano and other lawyers said. Read more via Japan Times