Chizuka Oe and Yoko Ogawa have lived together in a relationship of mutual trust for almost 25 years since they fell in love after their first encounter at a party. Despite some people around them refusing to recognize the two women as same-sex partners, or family members who have looked at them askance, Oe and Ogawa have not given up the fight for what they deem as their inalienable right: the freedom to choose whom they will marry under the Constitution of Japan.