Tokyo, Nov. 28 -- A Japanese court has upheld the country's ban on same-sex marriage as constitutional, making the Tokyo High Court the only high court so far to support the government's stance among six similar lawsuits filed nationwide, Kyodo News reported.

The court ruled that current civil law provisions preventing same-sex couples from marrying remain reasonable under existing conditions. This contrasts with earlier high court decisions in Sapporo, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka, which found the lack of legal recognition for same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional, though all those rulings dismissed demands for compensation.

In delivering the final judgment among the six lawsuits, Presiding Judge Ayumi Higashi stated that issues...