U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel has "full confidence" Japan will ban LGBTQ discrimination

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday said he has "full confidence" that the Japanese government will take the necessary steps to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people.

Sexual minorities have been campaigning for the government to adopt an anti-discrimination law after an aide to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters he wouldn't want to live next to LGBTQ people and that citizens would flee Japan if same-sex marriages were allowed. Kishida quickly fired the aide, Masayoshi Arai.

Activists are urging the government to enact anti-discrimination legislation before Japan hosts a summit of the Group of Seven industrialized nations in Hiroshima in May. Japan is the only G-7 member that has not recognized same-sex marriage or enacted an anti-discrimination law for sexual minorities.