Gay people in Japan are celebrating a breakthrough in their quest for equal rights after a district in Tokyo became the first municipality in the country to recognise same-sex partnerships.
The vote by Shibuya ward to issue certificates recognising same-sex unions as “equivalent to marriage” was greeted with cheers on Tuesday when it passed in the local assembly by a comfortable majority, but drew a cautious response from conservative politicians.
Although gay celebrities are visible in Japan’s mainstream entertainment world, campaigners say recognition of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights lags far behind the US, where gay marriage is legal in all but 13 states, and more than a dozen other countries that have also legalised it.
There is still no serious discussion among Japanese policymakers of legally binding civil unions, and same-sex couples say they regularly encounter discrimination in housing and other areas of civic life.
The Shibuya ordinance, which will go into effect on Wednesday, will allow local same-sex couples to rent apartments together and grant them hospital visitation rights as family members.
Although the ordinance is not legally binding, hospitals, real estate firms and other businesses found in breach of the ordinance will have their names disclosed on the ward’s website.
Officials in Shibuya, a popular entertainment and shopping district whose 217,000 residents include almost 10,000 non-Japanese people, said they were also planning an ambitious educational campaign on LGBT issues.
Shibuya’s mayor, Toshitake Kuwahara, said the move was in keeping with the friendly, progressive spirit of the area – a chaotic mix of clubs, restaurants, bars and shops that is probably best known overseas for its “scramble” pedestrian crossing.
Kuwahara said Japan’s sexual minorities lived in fear and were gripped by self-doubt. “This is the reality,” he told reporters recently. “The purpose is to realise a society where everyone can live with hope.”
Conservative politicians, however, have urged caution in granting same-sex couples more rights. The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is among those who have pointed out that Japan’s constitution describes marriage as “based only on the mutual consent of both sexes”.
Abe said “great care” needed to be taken in considering any change to the constitution that would recognise gay marriage. The current constitution, he said last month, “does not envisage marriage between people of the same sex”.
Mari Sato, a Liberal Democratic party lawmaker in Shibuya who opposed the move, said before the vote that “more time” was needed to discuss the issue. “The decision will have major social ramifications,” she said.
Shibuya officials, however, said that its same-sex partnerships were “totally different” from conventional marriage.
LGBT rights activists who had gathered outside Shibuya city hall welcomed the decision.
“Thank you Shibuya,” read a rainbow banner. Fumino Sugiyama, a transgender campaigner, told Reuters: “It’s not that we want to achieve something big, all we want is to be able to live with the people we love.”
Campaigners are hoping that the vote will prompt other parts of Japan to follow suit; two other wards in Tokyo and the nearby city of Yokohama are reportedly considering similar measures.
Bob Tobin, a resident of Tokyo whose marriage in the US to his Japanese partner has no legal standing in Japan, said the Shibuya move was “really a step forward”.
He added: “Hopefully all of Japan will take notice. I hope that other prefectures and cities follow suit.”
Shibuya’s recognition of same-sex marriages reflects growing public support for LGBT rights. A recent poll by the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper showed 44 % of respondents approved of same-sex marriage, while 39% opposed it.
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