Japan belatedly joins gay rights movement
Tokyo district to begin giving legal rights to couples
TOKYO— Gay couples in Japan are belatedly making strides. Starting this summer, one of Tokyo’s largest districts will soon begin issuing domestic partner agreements that for the first time will give legal protection to gay couples in Japan.
TOKYO As the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to sanction same-sex marriage across the United States, gay couples in Japan are belatedly making strides of their own.
Starting this summer, one of Tokyo’s largest districts will begin issuing domestic partner agreements that for the first time will give legal protection to gay couples in Japan.
“The purpose of the ordinance is to promote the diversity of society — which means to accept all the people irrespective of sex or sexuality,” said Shigeru Saito, director of Shibuya Ward’s General Affair’s Division.
The new law stops short of conferring full marriage rights and lacks specific penalties. But it will forbid discrimination in housing — a common problem for openly gay couples, according to advocates — and provide other protections, such as ensuring medical consultation and hospital visitation rights.
The measure will not affect taxes or other benefits regulated by the national government.
Supporters say that despite the shortcomings, the law may speed awareness and acceptance of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Japan. According to a 2012 survey by the Dentsu advertising company, about 5% of Japan’s population belongs to that community.
“It’s good, but it’s just a first step,” said Olivier Fabre, who heads a gay support organization for Reuters’ employees in Japan. “There is still a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding in Japan about LGBT. There are many people who are very hopeful that this has raised awareness.”
Although there is little outright hostility toward the LGBT community in Japan, there hasn’t been much outright acceptance either — at least until now. A Reuters poll in June 2013 found that 24% of Japanese favored samesex marriage, the second-lowest of 16 developed countries sur- veyed. Poland was the lowest.
Western influence may finally be propelling the issue here, said Gregory Noble, professor of comparative politics and public administration at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Social Science. “Just in the last six months or so I have noticed more attention paid to gay marriage, probably mostly because of developments in the U.S.”
Conservative groups organized several demonstrations against the Shibuya ordinance while it was being debated this year. And Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed doubt during a discussion in the Diet in February as to whether gay marriage was allowed under Japan’s constitution.
Same-sex marriage has “fundamental implications for the place of the family in our society, and so requires extremely careful examination,” Abe said.
Article 24 of the constitution states that “marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes.”
While that could imply that same-sex marriage is not permitted, some scholars argue that the language is intended only to ensure gender equality between marriage partners.
Abe’s wife, Akie Abe, is an open supporter of gay rights.
Patrick Linehan, a former U.S. consul general in Osaka who lived openly with his gay partner, said in an interview last year that attitudes in Japan are changing, in part because of a lack of organized opposition.
“When I first came to Japan in 1988, I was told routinely by everyone that, ‘Oh, there are no gay people in Japan,’ ” Linehan said in a May 2014 interview with Public Policy magazine. “One thing we don’t have to deal with in Japan ... are the organized groups that exist solely to fight against gay people.”
Maki Muraki, who founded the gay-support organization Nijiiro Diversity two years ago, said her company provided diversity training for more than 100 businesses in Japan last year.
“The fact that major companies in Japan are now dealing with this issue has a big impact on society,” she said.
But the ballot box is where the change may prove most significant. Ken Hasebe, the Shibuya assembly member who sponsored the domestic partner law, was elected mayor in late April. The vote, Fabre said, will “send a signal to other politicians that the (LGBT) community is now worth courting.”
“There is still a lot of ... misunderstanding in Japan about LGBT. There are many people who are very hopeful that this has raised awareness.”
Olivier Fabre, who heads a gay support group for Reuters’ employees in Japan