Japan

World Voices

Added on: 05/14/2021
Kate Efron and Manae Yamaguchi
Alturi Contributors
Thanks so much for joining us, Ms. Ono. I would like to begin by asking you, ‘‘How did you get involved in LGBTQ+ activism?’’ Could you please…

Global News

Added on: 05/12/2021
Over the past six years, activists in Japan have pressed the Diet, the national parliament, to introduce a nondiscrimination law that protects the rights of lesbian, gay,…

Global News

Added on: 04/28/2021
04/27/2021
Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto visited Japan’s first permanent LGBTQ centre on Tuesday and emphasised Tokyo Olympic organisers’ commitment to facilitating the public’s understanding of issues surrounding…

Global News

Added on: 04/09/2021
04/08/2021
A ruling party committee said Thursday that it will aim to enact a law to promote understanding of sexual minorities during the ongoing session of the Diet,…

Global News

Added on: 04/08/2021
04/08/2021
Last month, a Japanese district court for the first time ruled that not allowing same-sex couples to marry is unconstitutional. The verdict by the Sapporo District Court…

Global News

Added on: 04/05/2021
04/05/2021
Fifty-nine percent of 87 local governments that have introduced, or plan to introduce, a same-sex partnership system feel that Japan’s current system for sexual minorities is inadequate,…

Global News

Added on: 04/02/2021
03/26/2021
At least 93 foreigners residing in Japan were granted permission to bring their same-sex spouses to the country under a special visa between 2013 and 2020, the…

Global News

Added on: 03/28/2021
Activists submitted a petition with over 106,000 signatures to Japan’s ruling party Thursday, calling for an LGBT equality law to be enacted before the Tokyo Games, saying…

Global News

Added on: 03/25/2021
03/22/2021
Jenny and Narumi wept for happiness last week when a Japanese court ruled that barring same-sex marriages was unconstitutional, a decision that allowed them to move a…

Global News

Added on: 03/19/2021
It was quite something to see a district court judge break into tears as she read her verdict declaring the denial of marriage registration to same-sex couples…

Global News

Added on: 03/18/2021
03/16/2021
A Japanese court ruled on Wednesday that not allowing same-sex couples to get married is “unconstitutional,” setting a precedent in the only G7 nation not to fully…

Global News

Added on: 01/27/2021
(Tokyo) – Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan should commit to introducing a law to protect against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity,…

Global News

Added on: 01/03/2021
1/3/2021
A total of 948 people altered their officially registered gender in Japan in 2019, the highest number since a law was enforced more than a decade ago…

Global News

Added on: 12/27/2020
12/27/2020
Nearly 40 percent of sexual minority people in Japan have been sexually harassed or assaulted, a private survey involving more than 10,000 respondents showed Saturday. The survey…

Global News

Added on: 12/17/2020
12/17/2020
Tan Seng Kee, a 62-year-old retired doctor and LGBTQ+ activist, recently filed a motion in Singapore’s High Court, asking it to order the city-state’s cabinet to revoke…

Global News

Added on: 12/13/2020
12/13/2020
Located near the defunct Tsukiji Market, once one of the largest fish markets in the world, Tsukiji Hongwanji temple is the icon of the Jodo Shinshu sect…

Global News

Added on: 12/11/2020
12/10/2020
A growing number of Japanese prefectural high schools are relaxing or scrapping gender codes for uniforms to meet the needs of transgender and other sexual-minority students, with…

Global News

Added on: 12/03/2020
12/02/2020
TOKYO (Reuters) – When Toshitsune Tamashiro was young and closeted in 1980s Japan, Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ni-chome gay district was a haven. Now he runs a bar there,…

Global News

Added on: 11/29/2020
11/29/2020
A gay man in his 20s has reached a rare out-of-court settlement with the company he used to work for after a superior revealed his sexual orientation…

Global News

Added on: 10/30/2020
10/29/2020
A new documentary, directed by Graham Kolbeins, explores the LGBTQ+ culture in Tokyo and other regions through the eyes of its leading out figures. Kolbeins, along with…

Global News

Added on: 10/17/2020
10/16/2020
Advocacy groups and members of the LGBT community are calling on the central government to count the number of LGBT couples in the national census so they…

Global News

Added on: 10/15/2020
Sexual minority groups and human rights activists launched a petition on Thursday calling for an LGBT equality law in Japan in hopes that it can be enacted…

Global News

Added on: 10/11/2020
10/10/2020
Miho Okada experienced the frustrating limits of measures introduced to protect the rights of same-sex couples when her lesbian partner was hospitalized with advanced rectal cancer in…

Global News

Added on: 10/11/2020
10/10/2020
During a sheltered upbringing in a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, gay Japanese monk Kodo Nishimura kept his sexuality a closely guarded secret, and also concealed his burgeoning…

Global News

Added on: 10/08/2020
10/07/2020
A local politician of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has come under fire for claiming last month that his north Tokyo ward would “cease to exist” if…

Global News

Added on: 09/28/2020
09/27/2020
Ayano Sakurai believes that the Japanese government’s policy on gender equality needs more feedback from people of her generation who face wide-ranging gender-related challenges in their daily…

Global News

Added on: 09/08/2020
Ahead of the postponed Olympic Games in 2021, Tokyo will open Pride House, Japan’s first permanent such centre, in October to raise awareness of LGBTQ rights before…

Global News

Added on: 09/07/2020
09/06/2020
Advocates are calling for Japan to create national legislation to protect LGBT individuals from being outed, as the current piecemeal approach is failing to tackle the damaging…

Global News

Added on: 08/31/2020
SAPPORO – Sapporo and Osaka have made lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender couples in officially recognized partnerships eligible to receive support money if they are victims of…

Global News

Added on: 08/30/2020
08/29/2020
A monk who also works as a makeup artist is celebrating their own sexual diversity and spreading the message in Japan that different is beautiful. Kodo Nishimura,…