On October 1st, Mr. Nakagawa – Mayor of Nara prefecture has announced to be a member of the IGLTA (International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association) as the first Japanese local government to do so. A LGBT Seminar for the hospitality industry was held in Tokyo on September 29th and in Kyoto on September 30th, 2015. (The organizer was Out Asia Travel)  Ms. LoAnn Halden – Public relations director of IGLTA – was one of the speakers, and she visited the Nakagawa mayor in Nara city hall on October 1st, 2015. Ms. LoAnn Halden said “It is important to show the
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LGBT theme program – “Work of LGBT” has been broadcasted at “Baribara”- barrie-free variety program of  E Tele (NHK education), as the first in a series “Sexual minorities”.  (For your information, the second round theme is “Double minority”) This program provides a way to show society how to recognize the mutual diversity, by hearing the stories from LGBT personal experiences. Some examples are “Job hunting after coming out is struggling”, “Repeatedly changing career due to discriminatory behavior in the workplace makes life so painful”.  The guest for this program was MTF transgender Ai Haruna. Ms. Maki Muraki – NPO Nijiiro
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On September 25th at Toshima parliament plenary session, Mr. Taiga Ishikawa – openly gay subdivision parliament revealed the reality that more than half of accommodations in Toshima wards are rejecting single bed room use of same-sex couples, and Toshima wards decided provide guidance for improvement. In Article 5 of the Hotel Business Law, it is forbidden to refuse the accommodation, except where there is a risk of illegal activities such as infectious disease patients and gambling. However, according to the survey for hotels and inns in Toshima wards by Taiga Ishikawa, 143 facilities in 45 properties refuse men staying together
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The culture magazine “Tokyo Graffiti” use LGBT couples as the main feature and use their colorful pictures for their cover page. “Tokyo Graffiti” featured LGBT couples in the past, in the LGBT feature issue entitled “Tokyo Rainbow Graffiti” on March 2015. The October issue is “LGBT COUPLES @ Shibuya – Gay, lesbian … etc. Shape of various love”. Total of 15 varieties of couples, such as famous gay couples on TV, a Writer/Drag queen & FTM DJ couple, a MTF & a Straight person couple, gay couples married in the United States, a lesbian couple working in the same workplace
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In Japan, Census is carried out through September to October. This year, the new thing is an online ID of the Census is delivered to each household. In order to grasp the reality of people’s lives, all of the people who live (including the people of foreign nationality) were surveyed in Japan, and counting the results will be reflected in government policy. Since its purpose is to respect privacy, each answer is not checked against the Basic Resident Register or family register. In a conventional Census, when a partner selects a same-sex partner for their answer in members of the
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The September 14th, 2015 issue of “AERA”, a news magazine in Japan, (Asahi Shimbun published) published a 10 page special called “The future is clear after meeting you – LGBT”.  The eyes are drawn to the rainbow colored letter A in the “AERA” logo on the cover. In the contents of “My future is clear after meeting you” various couples are introduced such as a lesbian couple who married at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government 45th floor observation room, Mr. Walter & Mr. Inatsugi who work for Goldman Sachs, Ms. Arita Rika & Sara (happy photo with their child) who work
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