Japan

Global News

Added on: 01/03/2021
1/3/2021
A total of 948 people altered their officially registered gender in Japan in 2019, the highest number since a law was enforced more than a decade ago…

Global News

Added on: 12/27/2020
12/27/2020
Nearly 40 percent of sexual minority people in Japan have been sexually harassed or assaulted, a private survey involving more than 10,000 respondents showed Saturday. The survey…

Global News

Added on: 12/17/2020
12/17/2020
Tan Seng Kee, a 62-year-old retired doctor and LGBTQ+ activist, recently filed a motion in Singapore’s High Court, asking it to order the city-state’s cabinet to revoke…

Global News

Added on: 12/13/2020
12/13/2020
Located near the defunct Tsukiji Market, once one of the largest fish markets in the world, Tsukiji Hongwanji temple is the icon of the Jodo Shinshu sect…

Global News

Added on: 12/11/2020
12/10/2020
A growing number of Japanese prefectural high schools are relaxing or scrapping gender codes for uniforms to meet the needs of transgender and other sexual-minority students, with…

Global News

Added on: 12/03/2020
12/02/2020
TOKYO (Reuters) – When Toshitsune Tamashiro was young and closeted in 1980s Japan, Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ni-chome gay district was a haven. Now he runs a bar there,…

Global News

Added on: 11/29/2020
11/29/2020
A gay man in his 20s has reached a rare out-of-court settlement with the company he used to work for after a superior revealed his sexual orientation…

Global News

Added on: 10/30/2020
10/29/2020
A new documentary, directed by Graham Kolbeins, explores the LGBTQ+ culture in Tokyo and other regions through the eyes of its leading out figures. Kolbeins, along with…

Global News

Added on: 10/17/2020
10/16/2020
Advocacy groups and members of the LGBT community are calling on the central government to count the number of LGBT couples in the national census so they…

Global News

Added on: 10/15/2020
Sexual minority groups and human rights activists launched a petition on Thursday calling for an LGBT equality law in Japan in hopes that it can be enacted…

Global News

Added on: 10/11/2020
10/10/2020
Miho Okada experienced the frustrating limits of measures introduced to protect the rights of same-sex couples when her lesbian partner was hospitalized with advanced rectal cancer in…

Global News

Added on: 10/11/2020
10/10/2020
During a sheltered upbringing in a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, gay Japanese monk Kodo Nishimura kept his sexuality a closely guarded secret, and also concealed his burgeoning…

Global News

Added on: 10/08/2020
10/07/2020
A local politician of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has come under fire for claiming last month that his north Tokyo ward would “cease to exist” if…

Global News

Added on: 09/28/2020
09/27/2020
Ayano Sakurai believes that the Japanese government’s policy on gender equality needs more feedback from people of her generation who face wide-ranging gender-related challenges in their daily…

Global News

Added on: 09/08/2020
Ahead of the postponed Olympic Games in 2021, Tokyo will open Pride House, Japan’s first permanent such centre, in October to raise awareness of LGBTQ rights before…

Global News

Added on: 09/07/2020
09/06/2020
Advocates are calling for Japan to create national legislation to protect LGBT individuals from being outed, as the current piecemeal approach is failing to tackle the damaging…

Global News

Added on: 08/31/2020
SAPPORO – Sapporo and Osaka have made lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender couples in officially recognized partnerships eligible to receive support money if they are victims of…

Global News

Added on: 08/30/2020
08/29/2020
A monk who also works as a makeup artist is celebrating their own sexual diversity and spreading the message in Japan that different is beautiful. Kodo Nishimura,…

Global News

Added on: 08/27/2020
08/26/2020
A national census, conducted once every five years, will be held this fall to collect information from all residents and households in Japan, but same-sex couples are…

Global News

Added on: 08/13/2020
08/12/2020
The long-awaited Japan 2020 Olympics is finally in full swing— or it would be if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t forced the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone…

Global News

Added on: 07/24/2020
Japan’s government should pass the Equality Act ahead of next year’s Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, Human Rights Watch, Athlete Ally, and Japan Alliance for LGBT Legislation (J-ALL)…

Global News

Added on: 06/29/2020
06/27/2020
Ikuo Sato knows he will be in trouble if he becomes infected with COVID-19. “I’m over 60, I’ve got diabetes, I’m HIV-positive and I’m on artificial dialysis,”…

Global News

Added on: 06/21/2020
06/20/2020
A total of 900 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender couples have been recognized by municipal and other governments in Japan since 2015, when the use of certificates…

Global News

Added on: 06/10/2020
Japan is beginning to lag noticeably behind when it comes to LGBTQ rights such as adoption and marriage equality, but one region has taken a groundbreaking step…

Global News

Added on: 06/05/2020
06/04/2020
A Japanese district court on Thursday rejected a request by a man to overturn a prefectural commission’s decision deeming him ineligible for victims’ compensation as a surviving…

Global News

Added on: 05/18/2020
05/17/2020
With a new law aimed at stopping harassment in the workplace set to enter into force in Japan in June, freelance workers and sexual minorities are casting…

Global News

Added on: 04/27/2020
04/26/2020
About 20 companies in Japan will start accepting “partnership certificates,” issued to same-sex couples by a nongovernmental organization, from July as a way of providing employees with…

Global News

Added on: 04/21/2020
04/20/2020
A 34-year-old man who lives with his same-sex partner in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, has chosen not to be open about his sexual orientation at his office. But…

Global News

Added on: 03/12/2020
While Hollywood has blockbuster queer films Brokeback Mountain (2005), Moonlight (2016) and Call Me By Your Name (2017), social stigmas and cultural taboos mean that LGBTQ+ characters…

Global News

Added on: 02/19/2020
02/18/2020
Ireland’s groundbreaking marriage equality vote will be five years old this May – but have you seen one major ad campaign to attract the sought after LGBT…