Japan Press Weekly

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2023 February 8 - 14 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Dietmembers’ group talks with ‘Marriage for All’

A civil group seeking the legalization of same-sex marriage, “Marriage for All Japan”, on February 13 in the Diet building handed to the Japanese Communist Party parliamentarians’ group a written request calling for concrete actions that help protect sexual minorities’ human rights.

This event took place in reaction to the dismissal of a former secretary to Prime Minister Kishida, Arai Masayoshi, who made discriminatory remarks against sexual minorities and same-sex marriage. Arai said that he does not want to live next to or look at same-sex couples and LGBTQ people, and that if gay marriage is legalized in Japan, this may lead to people abandoning the country.

The civil group in its written request made the following demands:
- immediately launch a process to draft a marriage equality bill that allows same-sex marriage;
- set up a working team discussing ways to safeguard the rights of sexual and gender minorities and conduct a survey of gay couples and their families before the G7 summit meeting;
- swiftly appoint a Prime Minister’s secretary in charge of sexual minorities’ human rights; and
- improve the questions for a 2025 national census in order to cover data of same-sex couples.

In the meeting, civil group members expressed opinions such as these, “LGBTQ discrimination should be banned,” and “The Diet should hold discussions on legislation that ensures marriage equality.”

In response, JCP Secretariat Head Koike Akira said, “I totally agree with your demands. We’ll work hard on this issue as an important component in our political agenda.”

Past related article:
> JCP Koike: PM Kishida’s negative view on LGBTQ reflected in his aide’s discriminatory remarks [February 5, 2023]