In May 2024, town of Ōmura registered a similar-sex couple, Keita Matsuura and Yutaro Fujiyama, as partners under the same deal with. On 4 March 2020, the Tokyo High Court ruled that cohabiting same-sex couples must be entitled to the identical authorized advantages as these granted to cohabiting heterosexual couples. The organisation noted specifically that the COVID-19 pandemic had made identical-sex couples extra "susceptible" and "anxious", as they couldn't go to one another in hospitals nor have been they entitled to any authorized recognition if one of many companions were to die. Similar arguments were raised in one of the Tokyo District Court circumstances, wherein hearings and oral arguments happened on several dates in 2019 and 2020. One of many plaintiff couples, Chizuka Oe and Yoko Ogawa, ladies who had been collectively for 25 years, argued that banning same-intercourse marriage violates articles 13 and 14 of the Constitution. In 2019, Forbes deleted a 2013 article that referred to as Epstein "certainly one of the largest backers of leading edge science" after The brand new York Times revealed its creator, Drew Hendricks, had been paid $600 to submit it falsely as his own. A former worker informed the police that Epstein would obtain massages 3 times a day.