LGBT Movements in Japan

LGBT Movements in Japan

Understanding the history behind LGBT movements in Japan will help us figure out what is important for the present and the future.

1. The end of the 19th century 

Japanese society was extremely tolerant of love between men, and homosexual behavior by samurai, priests, and others was viewed as normal.


2. Late Meiji-era

Westernization of the country resulted in heterosexuality being seen as a sickness. 


3. 1990: Fuchū Youth House incident

"Occur", an association for gay and lesbian movements, was denied use of a public facility in a youth house. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government justified its decision to support the youth house based on its policy of single-sex rooms, arguing that the possibility of gay and lesbian people having sexual intercourse within the rooms would create an unwholesome environment for young people. 


4. 1996

The Saitama Medical school acknowledged the existence of transsexualism and allowed for sex reassignment surgery .


5. 2003: the Act on Special Cases in Handling Gender for People with Gender Identity Disorder

The Act on Special Cases in Handling Gender for People with Gender Identity Disorder allowed people medically diagnosed with gender dysphoria to change their gender on family registries, provided that they meet certain conditions, such as being at least 20 years old and unmarried.


6. 2015: Partnership

In November of 2015, Shibuya ward granted partial legal marriage, partnerships, to same-sex couples. It denies couples of most legal advantages to marriage, but it's seen as the next best thing for same-sex couples. 



References: 

Sechiyama, K. (2015, May 28). Rainbow in the East: LGBT Rights in Japan. Nippon.Com. https://www.nippon.com/en/currents/d00174/

Echavarria, P. C. (2022, January 15). We Do Not Live to Be Productive: LGBT Activism and the Politics of Productivity in Contemporary Japan. The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. https://apjjf.org/2022/2/Carland.html

Comments

  1. L.S. VerusJuly 25, 2022 at 8:33 PM

    I liked the way that you wrote the entry as a list of notable things as a sort of timeline. When I first saw the name of the entry, I thought it would just be a list of things that happened, but it felt really well organized and was easy to understand. I liked the fact that we, as a society, seemed to move back from the 19th century, and are now crawling our way back toward it. I hope there is more movement in the close future.

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