Japan Sparks Outrage Over LGBT Understanding Law

TOKYO, JP — (06-16-23) — Japan has passed a watered-down LGBT Understanding Law on Friday, that is meant to promote understanding of the LGBT community. Critics of the bill say the pathetic law has absolutely no human rights guarantees, while conservative lawmakers claim that the measure is too permissive.

Japan is the only Group of Seven (G7) nation that does not have same-sex marriage laws or LGBT protection for its citizens. The initial draft of the LGBT Law stipulated that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity should “not be tolerated”.

However that was changed to read “there should be no unfair discrimination”. That alone had critics saying that this language may encourage different forms of discrimination, in other words.. loop holes.

Several members of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party broke ranks with party directives by boycotting or walking out of Tuesday’s vote in the lower house and the final vote in the upper house.

“There have been crimes committed by impersonators in women’s restrooms,” said former upper house president and anti-LGBT activist Akiko Santo, after boycotting the vote in the chamber. “It would be a very serious problem if this bill passed and the trend became that it was normal to accept anything.” said Santo.

Kishida fired an aide by in February who had sparked outrage by saying “People would flee Japan if same-sex marriage was allowed and that he did not want to live next to LGBT couples.

“Some 70% of the nation allows same-sex partnerships, and surveys have found more than 70% of people are in favor of same-sex marriage,” the activist group Marriage for All Japan said in a tweet after the bill passed. “Even business leaders are on our side. Now, parliament and the government must move.”

Article by: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer

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