Lower house of Japan’s Parliament passes bill to promote LGBTQ+ awareness

The powerful lower house of Japan’s parliament on June 13 passed a bill to promote understanding of LGBTQ+ issues amid protests by activists that last-minute revisions by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s conservative party favoured opponents of sexual equality instead of guaranteeing equal rights.

The powerful lower house of Japan's parliament on June 13 passed a bill to promote understanding of LGBTQ+ issues amid protests by activists that last-minute revisions by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's conservative party favoured opponents of sexual equality instead of guaranteeing equal rights.

The passage followed only a few hours of debate in a lower house committee last Friday, an unusually short period.

The bill is expected to be approved quickly by Parliament's upper house, which is also controlled by Mr. Kishida's governing bloc.

Japan is the only member of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations which does not have LGTBQ+ legal protections.

Support for same-sex marriage and other rights has grown among the Japanese public, but opposition remains strong within the governing Liberal Democratic Party, known for conservative values and a reluctance to promote gender equality and sexual diversity.

LGBTQ+ activists have increased their efforts to achieve an anti-discrimination law since a former Kishida aide said in February that he wouldn't want to live next to LGBTQ+ people and that citizens would flee Japan if same-sex marriage were allowed.

The final version of the bill passed Tuesday states that “unjust discrimination" is unacceptable but doesn't clearly ban discrimination, apparently because some governing party lawmakers oppose transgender rights.