On May 6th and 7th, Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2017 took place in Yoyogi Park. This year, about 5,000 participants, dressed in colorful costumes, marched in Shibuya and about 100,000 people gathered in total, which marked the highest number in its history. (According to the official website of Tokyo Rainbow Pride.) On the first day, there were more than 100 boothes in the park. What caught a lot of attention was “Nijihachi,” a huge rainbow bee monument decorated with colorful flowers by mixi. DIESEL had a really fabulous booth, too. Many LGBT performers such as Hoshikuzu Scat”, “Tokyo GEGEGAY”, and “Kiyotaka”
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Fuji Television, the first rainbow illumination in Tokyo On April 29th, Chiyo Abe, a well- known TV commentator from Fuji Television Network, hosted the opening reception of Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2017. During the reception, she announced that Fuji Television will light up rainbow illumination between at 7.p.m and at 9.p.m on May 5th. The rainbow illumination is part of the projects of her Internet TV project, “LGBT LIFE.” The Internet TV program, “LGBT LIFE” is created by a production team led by an openly lesbian TV director of “Houdoukyoku”, Mayumi Yamaguchi. She is also the founder of a lesbian support
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In 2015, a competition entitled “Waseda Vision 150 Student Competiton” was held in Waseda University. In the competition, each student group gave a presentation of their choice and that year, “Team Diversity Waseda” won the 1st prize. In their presentation, the team talked about the importance of establishing a center for LGBTQ stundents on campus. This year, their vision finally came true.  In 2015, a competition entitled “Waseda Vision 150 Student Competiton” was held in Waseda University. In the competition, each student group gave a presentation of their choice and that year, “Team Diversity Waseda” won the 1st prize. In their
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Members of Domestic Partnership in Sapporo Sapporo City has announced that it will establish a same-sex partnership system beginning in June 2017. This is the first of its kind for the major cities in Japan. NHK Hokkaido media report said same-sex partnership certificates will be issued to same- sex couples who swear an oath of their relationship and the city will recognize their relationships as equivalent to marriage. The certificates are not legally binding under the city’s ordinance, but same-sex couples in the city will be able to become recipients of each other’s life insurance money and receive family phone
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On March 24th, The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) released Sourcing Code for all the businesses involved in 2020 Tokyo, which prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Sourcing Code is a rule for all the businesses involved in the process of production and distribution related to Tokyo 2020 Olympics. It clearly prohibits discrimination against LGBT people never tolerates discriminatory businesses and services. It says “throughout the production, distribution and other processes of produced products, etc., suppliers, etc. should respect the rights of social minorities such as ethnic, cultural and sexual minorities
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On November 1st, The Tokyo Star Bank, Limited revised its term deposit policy and started to recognize same-sex relationships as family. Same-sex partners are treated as equivalent to spouses in some insurance companies in Japan , however, The Tokyo Star Bank, Limited is the first Japanese bank that recognizes same-sex relationships. Under their previous policy, “family” was defined as persons within the second degree, but from now on, same-sex couples are treated as family with the submission of an official partnership certificate issued by Shibuya Ward or Setagaya Ward. Preferential interest rates are also applied to same-sex partners in three
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On November 3rd, the award ceremony of the Tokyo International Film Festival took place and ‘Die Beautiful’ won Audience Award and Paolo Ballesteros won Best Actor. The film is about a life of Trisha, a Filipino transgender woman who dies after winning a beauty pageant. Audience Award goes to the best film that receives the most ‘like‘ votes from the audience. There were 16 films, in competition, chosen from 98 countries and regions this year. The film’s director, Jun Robles Lana, and its executive producer, Perci Intalan came up on the stage at the award ceremony. (Both of them are
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Bunkyo ward issued and handed out this card for residents’ education. On April 5th, Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo established the guidelines for school teachers and the city officials on how to deal with LGBTs to stop discrimination and harassment. It is such a rare case for a local municipality to establish the specific guidelines for dealing with LGBTs, according to Japan Alliance for LGBT Legislation(J-ALL) I will introduce some of what is written in the guidelines. The guidelines start from explaining the basic knowledge of LGBTs, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Chapter 2 : Dealing with residents.  “When it comes to
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On 24th October, a love hotel in Ikeda City, Osaka Prefecture denied a gay couple the use of its facility and the public health center for Osaka issued administrative guidance to the love hotel. The gay couple said that they had visited the love hotel in early October but the hotel denied them entry because they were both men. The couple decided to consult with the public health center and administrative guidance was issued to the love hotel. The hotel said they would carry out discussions on future measures for same-sex couples. “It’s illegal for a hotel to deny someone
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“Sapporo TV Tower”, the symbol of Sapporo City, is illuminated as rainbow in pride season On March 30th, Sapporo City announced the city will issue certificates that officially recognize same-sex partnership from this June. “Sapporo Partnership” was planned to be brought into effect this April, but it was postponed so that the city could have some time to make everyone in the city informed about it. The partnership system could have been mistaken for a system equivalent as marriage, so the city decided to explain the same-sex partnership certificate on its official website and PR magazine. For the recipients’ privacy,
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