TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A group of top lawyers in Japan called on the government and parliament on Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage by revising relevant laws. The current legal system "infringes upon the freedom of marriage and violates the Constitution, which states all people are equal under the law," the Japan Federation of Bar Associations said in a first-of-its-kind statement released regarding the matter.

All individuals are granted the freedom to decide whether they marry as well as who and when they wed under the Constitution of Japan, and the exclusion of same-sex unions runs contrary to the principle of human equality, the statement said.

Article 24 of the Constitution states marriage "shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes." The federation says the notion of same sex marriage was beyond the scope of assumption at the time of enactment. Read more via The Mainichi