Ahsh Inc., a wedding company in Osaka started their new service “Equal Wedding Japan” that offers Japanese style wedding ceremony to international same-sex couples.
Ahsh Inc. provides international same-sex couples and transgender couples with a variety of Japanese traditional wedding clothes. International same-sex-couples and transgender couples are able to hold a wedding ceremony in places such as a Japanese traditional house in Kyoto, a Nohgaku stage, a Japanese style shrine in a hotel, and Toei Kyoto Studio Park. All the procedures will be taken care of by English-speaking assistants. On Ahsh Inc.’s website, you can see great pictures of same-sex couples having a wedding. (Their advertising video is very great and beautiful. To see the video, please click here.)
Ahsh Inc. offers several courses for great weddings. “Japan Traditional Wedding” offers the most traditional wedding ceremony which has been loved by many for more than 10 years. Shrine maidens and ancient court music, gagaku celebrates your new life with your partner in a Japanese style well-built shrine. Souls of Gods are believed to dwell in shrines. Since the shrine for your wedding is built in a hotel, changing your wedding clothes and weather condition will be no problem. In addition to that, the elegant color of shrines, “shuiro”(vermillion color), is believed to protect couples from harm. You do not need to worry about anything since an English-speaking priest will carefully help your wedding. You can experience an ancient Japanese wedding ritual called “san san kudo.”(couples vow eternal undying love to each other by sipping three cups of Japanese sake three times each.) You will find yourself in a solemn frame of mind during the ritual. Shrine maidens will help you and you might be able to see their dance if you are lucky. “Japan Traditional Wedding” is a very fantastic wedding course. All the equipments, Kimono, photographers, and an English-speaking priest are all included in this course.
Other courses are “SAMURAI Wedding,” “Noh Wedding,” and “Machiya Wedding.” In “SAMURAI Wedding,” you can dress yourself as ninja, princesses,or shogun and have a wedding ceremony while making your original videos in Toei Kyoto Studio Park. In “Noh Wedding,” you can have a fantastic wedding ceremony with Ohayashi, music played on Japanese traditional instruments such as “taiko.” In “Machiya Wedding,” you can have a wedding ceremony in “machine”, a Japanese traditional house built with Japanese traditional building techniques 100 years ago.
Ahsh Inc. said “7% of all Japanese people are said to be LGBT individuals. We do not think the number is small. We started our new wedding service, ‘Equal Wedding Japan’ because we believe everyone has a right to marry whoever they love and sexuality does not matter when it comes to marriage. The word, ‘Equal,’ reflects our belief on marriage. We have been helping a lot of couples for 30 years and many more international couples want to experience Japanese traditional weddings. We will welcome them with confident and great hospitality.”
Ahsh Inc. added “According to the repot published by Williams Institute,UCLA, 96,000 same-sex couples got married within 4 months after same-sex marriage was legalized in all the states in the U.S Legalization of same-sex marriage is said to generate economic effects of 2.6 billion dollars on U.S market for the next three years.”
“Same-sex marriage has not been legalized in Japan yet, but the awareness and understanding of LGBT is increasing. Now that international visitors are increasing in Japan, ‘Equal Wedding Japan’ will help international same-sex couples have a wonderful and memorable cultural experience.”
“Equal Wedding Japan” is available only in Kyoto and Osaka, but Ahsh Inc. is planning to expand the service all over Japan.
2016/01/30