Slow Start: Japan’s Watered-down LGBTQ Understanding Bill a Step in the Right Direction

Barely a year after the Osaka district court dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of banning same-sex marriage in Japan, the country’s Upper House passed a watered-down bill to promote understanding of LGBTQ communities. As the only Group of Seven (G7) nation that doesn’t recognize same-sex unions, Japan recently came under increasing pressure from other G7 nations to allow same-sex marriage, warning that Japan wouldn’t maintain its international competitiveness without greater diversity, including representation for the members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Mounting Pressure

At the Pride 7 Summit in Tokyo held in March this year, Japanese LGBTQ campaigners and their supporters called on G7 nations to urge Japan’s government to enact anti-discrimination laws before the country hosted the G7 summit. In the face of growing pressure from G7 nations, in the lead-up to the G7 summit held in Japan in May, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kashida created a new government post responsible for LGBTQ+ rights and met with community representatives. However, any goodwill expressed by this gesture was sort-lived when Kashida claimed that the country’s ban on same-sex marriage was not discriminatory, adding that legalization of such unions would “fundamentally change society,” sparking widespread anger. The prime minister’s statement was also admonished by Takako Uesugi, one of several lawyers representing plaintiffs seeking marriage equality at Tokyo court, as tantamount to “approving of discrimination.”

Despite Kashida’s attempts at deflecting criticism that his party, the conservative Liberal Democratic Party is trapped in a cycle of intolerance, it was made evident when the bill, which was submitted to parliament for consideration only a day before the G7 summit started on May 19, was passed by the more powerful lower house despite lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party being absent or leaving during voting, breaking with party directives.

A bill aimed at promoting understanding of the LGBTI community has been debated in the Diet session this year. However, the debate has been complicated by the fact that there are three different bills on the same subject from different parties.

Amnesty international

The bill’s initial draft stipulated an absolute intolerance to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, but it was later amended to state “there should be no unfair discrimination,” which critics warn may tacitly allow discrimination. The bill is in stark contrast with Japanese public approval of same-sex marriage which stands at roughly 70 percent. Additionally, as many as 250 municipalities across the country issue partnership certificates which grant limited rights to same-sex couples such as allowing them hospital visitation rights and joint rental rights, though these certificates aren’t legally binding.

In a letter to the Japanese Prime Minister, ambassadors from other G7 countries in Japan called on Japan to “match its international advocacy of human rights with a domestic agenda that includes steps to protect its own LGBTQ+ communities,” while US Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel urged went further, calling for clear and unambiguous legislative protection for sexual minorities before the conclusion of the current parliamentary session this month.  

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Better Late Than Never

Despite it being widely criticized, with the passing of this bill, Japan has taken its first steps toward joining other South Asian countries that have, in recent years, decriminalized homosexuality, enshrined protections for gender and sexual minorities, and/ or legalized same-sex unions.

In November 2022, Singapore became the latest country in the region, to repeal a law criminalizing homosexuality after several failed attempts at repealing the law. The colonial-era law, Section 377A in the country’s penal code was repealed with a majority of 93 votes to three in the country’s parliament. India and Nepal have also decriminalized homosexuality with the former doing it twice, first striking down the country’s colonial-era Section 377A in 2009, a judgment that would be overruled in 2012 and later overturned in 2018. Nepal is considered to have one of a handful of pro-LGBTQ constitutions, even though the country still doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage. Sri Lanka, India’s Southern neighbor, is also making strides toward equality after the country’s supreme court declared a bill seeking to decriminalize homosexuality not inconsistent with the country’s constitution.

“No country is free from discrimination. If we believe in equality for all, we have a duty to speak up and stand up both at home and abroad. Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2023 is over, but our efforts to ensure equality for all continue.”

US Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel

The standout in the region, however, is the island of Taiwan which was the first in South East Asia to recognize same-sex marriage. No country in continental Asia recognizes same-sex unions, but Thailand might set precedence after lawmakers in the country passed four bills aiming to give more rights to same-sex couples potentially allowing them to adopt children and jointly manage assets. Efforts are also underway in South Korea to seek to amend the country’s civil code to recognize same-sex marriage. A bill was proposed by Jang Hye-yeong of the minor opposition justice party. It is not expected to pass but is considered a defining moment in the fight for equal rights. Just a few months ago, a South Korean court recognized the rights of a same-sex couple for the very first time in the country’s history.

Conversely, Indonesia’s law banning sex outside of marriage and cohabitation might adversely affect the country’s gender and sexual minorities who face increasingly hostility from fundamentalist sects and an increasingly conservative society and government. The country, in recent years, has intensified crackdowns on homosexuality characterized by raids conducted mainly under the Pornography Act. Even though the law is not to come into effect for another two and a half years, it is still expected to create a precarious situation for gender and sexual minorities who choose to cohabit in a country where LGBTQ individuals are far more likely to face discrimination from friends and family, and as such, might opt to live with other LGBTQ individuals.

In recent years, China, a country in which homosexuality was decriminalized in 1997 and declassified as a mental disorder in 2001, has, in recent years, resolved to combat the emergence of “sissy men” in society. In 2021, the government banned “effeminate men” on TV, urging broadcasters to promote “revolutionary culture.” The state TV regulator stated that broadcasters must “resolutely put an end to sissy men and other abnormal esthetics,” sparked by fears that Chinese male performers are being influenced by their more androgynous-presenting Korean and Japanese counterparts.

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