Japanese woman awarded S$12,525 after lawsuit against partner secretly married with children

A Japanese woman won 1.51 million yen (S$12,525) in a court case against her partner who said he was single, and concealed the fact that he was married with children.

Japan Today reported that the Tokyo District Court ruled in favour of the woman on Dec. 8, and ordered the man she was in a sexual relationship with to pay the amount.

According to the ruling, by not revealing that he was married with children, the man had violated her "right to chastity".

Dating app

According to Japan Times, in the eyes of Japanese law, lying to someone in order to convince them to have consensual sex invalidates the consent.

This comes after the pair met on a dating app after the woman registered in May 2023, according to Yomiuri Shimbun.

She clearly stated in her profile that she was not interested in married men.

The woman began dating her then partner who contacted her and had an on-and-off sexual relationship with him.

However, the man suddenly stopped contacting her after four months and she later discovered he was married with children.

Lawsuit

According to 373news.com, this prompted the woman, who works for a foreign company, to file a lawsuit against the man working for a major advertising agency.

However, as there was no physical or mental coercion involved, this is treated as a civil case, instead of a criminal one.

Japan Times reported that the lawsuit was originally for 7.82 million yen (S$64,866) but the upper limit for violating someone's right to chastity is usually around 3 million yen (S$24,885).

The relatively low amount awarded likely took into account the circumstances, such as there being no pregnancy.

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