Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2017 April 26 - May 9 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

2-day event for LGBT rights in Tokyo attracts over 100k people

Seeking to eliminate discrimination and prejudice against sexual minorities, the 2017 Tokyo Rainbow Pride event took place on May 6 and 7 in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park. Various programs in the two-day event attracted a total of 105,000 visitors.

On the first day, a symposium on HIV prevention was held with three panelists from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. They are representatives of civil groups working to raise public awareness of HIV prevention measures in each country. The three activists agreed on the need to promote international cooperation to fight the disease.

On May 7, around 5,000 people marched through Tokyo’s most fashionable street near Yoyogi Park. Among the marchers, some same sex couples walked hand in hand and others held placards reading, “I want to marry my partner!”, “You don’t need to pretend to be someone else!” Japanese Communist Party members of the House of Representatives Ikeuchi Saori and the House of Councilors Yamazoe Taku joined the march.

Niwa Erisa, an organizer of the international lesbian and gay film festival Rainbow Reel Tokyo, said that her friend who is gay killed himself and that she still wonders what she could have done to help him. Niwa called for more efforts to create a society where LGBT people are fully integrated and accepted.

* * *

The Japan branch of the human rights organization Amnesty International on May 2 issued a proposal on safeguarding LGBT rights in the country.

The proposal by Amnesty International Japan points out that Japan has no law to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It urges the national and local governments to provide equal legal protection for LGBT persons and give civil servants training on equal treatment for sexual minorities.


Past related article:
> JCP Ikeuchi calls for enactment of law to protect LGBT human rights [May 8 & 9, 2016]