Goshi Hosono(center) who is policy chief of Democratic Party was joined Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2015. Democratic Party of Japan has decided to submit a bill to the Diet to eliminate discrimination toward LGBT people in Japan. The bill will be submitted to the Diet on January 4th, 2016. The legislation will ban discrimination toward LGBT people by businesses and local governments. It will also require schools to establish a counseling system for those who identify as LGBT and promote understanding of the issues facing them. According to the outline created by the DPJ’s working team, discrimination based on gender identity
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Azusa(left) is FtM transgender, and Tsubaki(right) is pansexual woman. They have relationship and acting for same-sex partnership certification in Chiba. On December 15th, Yoshihiko Kaneoya, the head of Chiba Civic Affairs Bureau showed a positive attitude issuing same-sex partnership certificates in responding to questions about same-sex partnership certificates in Shibuya and Setagaya wards, asked by Masayoshi Fuse, a member of Future Democratic Party For Chiba(Mirai Minshu Chiba). In the city council, Fuse asked Kaneoya whether or not Chiba City needs to start working on a new measurement to acknowledge same-sex partners. In response, Kaneoya said, “We need further discussions on
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“LOVE IS STRANGE” is about a gay couple living in NY who has been together for 39 years and the gay couple faces happiness and unhappiness of marriage when they decide to get married. “LOVE IS STRANGE” will be open to the public in “CINEMA SWITCH GINZA” and other theatres on March 12th. Regardless of sex, any couple including same-sex couples who are 50 or older can get the 50% off discount. That will be 1100 yen for each. This is the first trial of its kind in the film industry. In order to get “Couple 50% OFF” discount, either
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Atsushi Kawada, an openly gay staff of IBM Japan was honored as “Best of IBM” last year. On November 30th, IBM Japan, Ltd is now ready to create a new system, “IBM Partner Registration System,” that recognizes their employees’ partners as equivalent to marriage as one of their policies to make a work environment where all the employees including those who identify as LGBT can display their abilities to the full. The new system will go into effect from January, 2016. Diversity of races, cultures, thought,and gender is IBM’s source of innovation and one of the most fundamental parts of
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Right side woman is the Mayor of Naha City, Mikiko Shiroma. Left side man is a representative of Pink Dot Okinawa, Hideki Sunagawa. Naha City, the second municipality in Japan which made a declaration of its LGBT supports called, “Naha, the city of sexual diversity (Naha Rainbow Declaration)”at Pink Dot Okinawa in last June, announced that discussions are going to take place regarding same-sex partnership certificates which recognize same-sex couples as equivalent to marriage and introduce an ordinance for same-sex couples in 2016 or later. The city is planning to visit Shibuya and Setagaya wards which have already started issuing
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On December 7th, Nikkei WOMAN gave an official announcement about the winners of “Women of the Year 2016” award and Maki Muraki, the leader of nonprofit organization Nijiiro Diversity(Rainbow Diversity), received “Change Maker Award.” The purposes of “Women of the Year” are (1)to show role models of working women, (2)to shed a light on individual achievement which tends to be forgotten easily, and (3) to analyze the social changes those women have made. “Women of the Year” has awarded a lot of women since 1999 and marked its 17th anniversary this year. Probably, Maki Muraki is the first out lesbian
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On November 30th, Takarazuka City in Hyogo Prefecture, announced that the city is going to issue same-sex partnership certificates and set guidelines for same-sex couples, who submitted same-sex partnership certificates to its ward office, to allow those in same-sex relationships to receive various social services. The guidelines will go into effect in June, 2016. In Japan, Takarazuka City is the third municipality to issue same-sex partnership certificates after Tokyo’s Shibuya and Setagaya wards. It is the first city to recognize same-sex unions in Kansai region. Takarazuka City established a working group for same-sex partnership certificates at the end of last
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Naha City made a declaration of its LGBT supports called, “Naha, the city of sexual diversity (Naha Rainbow Declaration)”at Pink Dot Okinawa in last June Last December, we told you Naha City started its discussion on same-sex partnerships and it is now trying to complete guidelines for issuing same- sex partnership certificates by July this year. Naha City will be the 5th municipality that recognizes same-sex couples in Japan. (The other municipalities are Setagaya and Shibuya wards in Tokyo, Iga City in Mie Prefecture, Takarazuka City in Hyogo Prefecture.) The decision was made in a regular session of the city
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Japan Airlines announced that it will extend its special bonus of “JAL Mileage Bank” to same-sex partners and allow same-sex couples to receive the bonus. Only family members of customers could register for “JAL Mileage Bank” and receive its bonus, but now same-sex partners, who has same-sex partnership certificates issued by their local government, can do the same. This great news was spread by an openly transgender councilor in Setagaya ward, Aya Uekawa, on February 18th. On her twitter account, she said that “If you show your partnership certificate to JAL, it will recognize you as family and you can
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On February 28th, Panasonic announced that it is planning to change its company rules and recognize same-sex couples as equivalent to married. This change will extend its company benefits to same-sex couples. Panasonic will amend its company rules in April and clearly show its willingness to treat its employees regardless of their sexual identity and orientation. This will affect approximately 250,000 employees working domestically and internationally. Panasonic’s company rules say “It will respect basic human rights of its employees and any discriminatory treatment will not be tolerated.” Panasonic will add to its rules “any discriminatory treatment regarding sexual identity and
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