Japan has passed legislation aimed at “promoting the understanding” of members of the LGBTQ community – a watered-down bill that will do little to put the Asian country in line with fellow liberal democracies on the issue.
As many reportsof the bill’s passage on June 16, 2023, have noted, Japan lags far behind other G7 countries when it comes to the legal protection of sexual minorities.
There has been less discussion of how the limits of the new law – and the prolonged battle to get it passed – highlight how national politicians are out of step with Japanese society at large.
Despite Japan’s international stereotype as a socially conservative nation – a view swayed by the political leanings of the national government – both corporate Japan and regional authorities in the country have long been out in front of parliament on the rights of LGBTQ people. Moreover, Japan’s history on same-sex relationships is decidedly more mixed than many in the country’s national politics, or in the West, would acknowledge.
The bill passed by both houses of Japan’s parliament does little to move the needle for the rights of sexual minorities in the country. There are no additional legal protections included. And a vague stipulation in the bill that “all citizens can live with peace of mind” has been criticized by LGBTQ activists for de-prioritizing the rights of sexual minorities.
The fact that even such modest proposals faced a battle to be passed is indicative of the stubbornness of the national parliament to seriously address LGBTQ rights.
Yet outside the national parliament, the political and legal struggles for equal rights for sexual minorities have achieved a series of successes in recent years in Japan, especially at the regional and municipal levels.
In March 2019, legislation banning discrimination against sexual minorities was passed in Ibaraki prefecture. A month later, a Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly law prohibited all discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The Tokyo law also committed the city government to raising awareness of LGBTQ people and outlawed the expression of hateful anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in public.
Polling in February 2023 found that 64.3% of Japanese respondents backed laws that promoted a better understanding of sexual minorities. A similar percentage of the population also support the legal recognition of same-sex marriage.
And on the issue of same-sex marriage, it is again at the local level where strides are being made.
Several district courts have now ruled that the Japan’s ban on same-sex marriage violates Article 14 of its constitution, which guarantees equality of all people before the law.
Yet the conservative Liberal Democratic Party government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida disagrees, pointing to Article 24 of the Constitution, which states that marriage is based only on “the mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintained through mutual cooperation with the equal rights of husband and wife.”
In the absence of a national law to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage, local authorities have turned to civil partnerships. Although these do not provide legal protection against discrimination more broadly, they do offer some benefits, including the option to apply for public housing.
More than 300 municipalities – representing around two-thirds of the population – already allow same-sex couples to enter partnership agreements which are recognized at the local level.
[Abridged]
Sabine Frühstück, University of California, Santa Barbara
