How Asians feel about same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriage is an active legal and social issue across South, Southeast and East Asia. In the wake of several court rulings on the issue across Asia in the past year, we analyzed data from three recent Pew Research Center surveys to see how people in the region feel about legalizing same-sex marriage.

A median of 49% of adults in 12 places in Asia say they at least somewhat favour allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally. Another 43% say they oppose legal same-sex marriage, according to surveys conducted between June 1, 2022, and Sept. 17, 2023.

Views toward same-sex marriage are most favourable in Japan, where nearly seven-in-ten (68%) say they at least somewhat favour allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally. Japan, the only Group of Seven member that does not legally recognize same-sex couples, has been facing internal and external pressure to do so.

In Vietnam, views on legalizing same-sex marriage are similarly positive – 65% of adults support it. Roughly six in ten in Hong Kong (58%) and Cambodia (57%) also favour legal same-sex marriage. A Hong Kong court recently ruled that same-sex couples hold equal inheritance rights, though Hong Kong law does not allow them to marry.

Same-sex marriage was an issue on Thailand’s campaign trail this year. Six in ten adults there favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally. Around a third of Thais oppose it.

In India, where the Supreme Court recently rejected a petition to legalize same-sex marriage, about 53% of adults say they favour allowing gays and lesbians to marry, while 43% oppose it. (The survey was conducted prior to the ruling.)

In Singapore, no clear majority favours (45%) or opposes (51%) same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage is not legal in Singapore, and its parliament amended the constitution last year to prevent legal challenges to the definition of marriage.

And in Taiwan, roughly equal shares say they support (45%) and oppose (43%) same-sex marriage. Taiwan is the only place in Asia where same-sex marriage is legal.

In a handful of places in Asia, majorities oppose legal same-sex marriage. In Indonesia, 92% say they oppose it, including 88% who strongly oppose it. Large majorities in Malaysia (82%) and Sri Lanka (69%) also oppose it.

And in South Korea, a slight majority (56%) say they oppose legal same-sex marriage, while 41% favour it. Lawmakers proposed South Korea’s first same-sex marriage bill earlier this year.

Though different places have vastly different religious demographics, the religiously unaffiliated tend to be among the most likely to support same-sex marriage.

In the six places where enough religiously unaffiliated individuals were surveyed to analyze their responses separately, half or more of the religiously unaffiliated support legal same-sex marriage. That includes 73% in Japan.

Meanwhile, Muslims and Christians are often, but not always, among the least likely to support it. For instance, while roughly six in ten religiously unaffiliated Singaporeans favor same-sex marriage, fewer than a third of Christians and Muslims do.

In Indonesia and Malaysia, the two Muslim-majority places surveyed, Muslims report the lowest support for same-sex marriage of any religious group in any place surveyed. Only 4% of Indonesian Muslims and 8% of Malaysian Muslims support it.

Across most places surveyed, younger adults are more likely than their older counterparts to support same-sex marriage. This difference is most extreme in Taiwan: 75% of Taiwanese adults under 35 favour it, compared with 33% of those 35 and older.

In five places surveyed, women are more likely than men to support legal same-sex marriage. For example, 48% of women in South Korea say they favour it, compared with 33% of men. And in Cambodia, 62% of women favour it, compared with 50% of men. In other places surveyed, there are no significant differences by gender.