On April 28th, the opening reception of Tokyo Rainbow Pride (TRP) took place in Shibuya. TRP pride week (held until May 6th) has fabulously started. OUT IN JAPAN’s photographs are now displayed from the start point of TRP parade to Shibuya Park Street. It was really amazing to see the pictures of openly LGBTQ people everywhere in Shibuya, where thousands of people come and enjoy shopping. hotel koé tokyo, the venue for the opening reception, is a luxury hotel built on the former site of Shibuya PARCO. The reception party started around 6 p.m with DJ Shikisai’s performance enlivening the
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The guideline which was made by Chiba city for faculty member. Chiba City Council Environments and Economics Committee passed the petition, submitted by advocacy groups, to officially recognize same-sex partnership on April 26th. The city announced the introduction outline will be made. “We hope the outline will be complete by the beginning of this fall. We will spend four months to raise awareness of same-sex partnership in the city and hope to start it from next April,” said Hirokazu Koike, the chief of Civic Affairs Bureau. The new partnership system will issue the partnership certificates not only to same-sex couples,
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The man looking at photos of his partner is the suitor. He feels so sad. On April 26th, a gay man, aged 69, filed a lawsuit against his partner’s family after they supplanted the couple’s company and refused to let the gay man attend the funeral. The gay man had lived with his partner, eight years older than him, since 1971. The couple had run a company together, but his partner was the CEO & the president of the company. He had been hospitalized many times for prostate cancer, so the gay man had to work for him and visited
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Kanagawa Prefecture to launch a new enterprise to support LGBT citizens, seeking to hire consulting staff. According to Nikkei Business Publications, Kanagawa Prefecture announced, on April 10th, that the prefecture is planning to launch a new enterprise to show support to its LGBT citizens. Consulting staff will be sent to local businesses if needed. In addition to the consultation service, seminars and in-house trainings will be held to achieve better understanding of LGBT people. Kanagawa Prefecture has taken a step toward achieving an LGBT-friendly prefecture where anyone can live happily regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. The press release,
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Left:IVAN, Right:Yuki Nomura IVAN, a transgender fashion model, and Yuki Nomura, an actor announced their current relationship the other day. Their fans are raving about their relationship, saying “such a lucky girl to date Yuki!” On April 8th, Sports Nippon, a newspaper, covered IVAN and Yuki Nomura’s relationship and Mr. Nomura’s agency admitted the fact. According to those who are close to the couple, the two have been together for almost a year. Last June, the two went on a trip with Ai Haruna and after the trip, they started dating IVAN, a well-known fashion model working worldwide, came out
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From Left: Miho Yamashita, Anri Ishizaki, Mayor Takashima Last February, Fukuoka City announced that the city would start recognizing same- sex unions from April 2nd. The city started accepting applications from March 20th. And the good news is Anri Ishizaki, the representative of an LGBT support group, and his partner, Miho Yamashita, received a same-sex partnership certificate as the first same- sex union that is officially recognized by Fukuoka City. The couple signed a written oath of partnership together at the city office and received a partnership certificate from Mayor Takashima. The driver’s-license-sized certificate enables same-sex unions to live in
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