Japan’s key lower house of parliament approved a bill to promote understanding of the LGBT community in the country, and the session was broadcast on the house’s website.
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A bill to promote understanding of the LGBT community was submitted by the ruling coalition to the country’s parliament on May 18 on the eve of the G7 leaders’ summit. Last Friday, the bill, which was amended until the very last moment, was approved by the cabinet committee of the lower house of parliament.
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The Constitutional Democratic Party opposes the bill, arguing that the fact of hasty amendments indicates that more time is needed to discuss the text of the document.
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The issue of same-sex marriage and the rights of sexual minorities arose in Japan especially sharply this winter after the former assistant to the prime minister of the country Masayoshi Arai, speaking of a representative of a non-traditional orientation, used the line “I hate to look at them,” which was considered discriminatory. Later, Kishida himself, commenting on the likelihood of same-sex marriages being allowed in the country, said that “society will change (irrevocably)”.
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By passing a bill to promote understanding of the LGBT community, official Tokyo hopes to reduce the degree of criticism from other countries, since Japan is the only G7 country that does not recognize same-sex marriage.
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The country has repeatedly considered lawsuits from representatives of non-traditional orientation, who believe that the inability to legally register a marriage between people of the same sex violates the article of the Constitution on the right to freedom of marriage.
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The courts insist that the constitution refers to marriage between a man and a woman. Several Tokyo metropolitan areas have begun registering same-sex couples as partners, which makes it somewhat easier for them to rent housing, but has no legal force in a broad sense.
