TOKYO, April 14 (UPI) -- A Japanese court has ruled that the son of a Japanese father and Filipino mother can seek Japanese nationality, even though his parents are unmarried.
The Tokyo District Court, ruling as unconstitutional a provision of the Nationality Law requiring parents of a child seeking nationality to be married, decided that a 7-year-old boy born to a Japanese father and Filipino mother should be granted Japanese nationality, the Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday.
Legal experts said the ruling was the first time the Nationality Law had been declared unconstitutional.
The court said that deciding nationality based on the marital status of the child's parents would violate the Constitution, which states that all people are equal under the law.
The boy was born in Japan and lives with his mother in Japan. The boy's father, who is married to a Japanese woman, acknowledged paternity of the boy soon after his birth.
The Nationality Law states that nationality is given when the father recognizes paternity before the baby is born.
