Gaku Hashimoto, an LDP lawmaker in the lower house of Parliament who sits on a committee working for a law on LGBT rights, said winning the hosting rights for the 2020 Summer Olympics had helped bring change, since the Olympic charter mandates equality, including on matters of sexual orientation. On his second attempt in 2011, Ishizaka won the Tokyo district assembly seat, and this time he said there were tears, not titters, when he spoke. Several municipalities, including two Tokyo districts, now give same-sex partners rights similar to spouses, as do a growing number of companies.
LGBT rights are not covered in Japan’s Equal Opportunity Act and there are no anti-discrimination laws.
Though the paragraph is deep in the manifesto of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and refers only to promoting understanding of sexual diversity, even this was unthinkable a decade ago.īy Asian standards, Japanese laws are relatively liberal - homosexual sex has been legal since 1880 - but social attitudes keep the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community largely invisible.
