2018:07:03

We released the news that support group submitted a petition to 27 local municipalities that asks for recognition of same-sex partnerships the other day. Guess what! Saitama city announced that they will start a same-sex partnership system.

On July 3rd, Mayor Shimizu Hayato clearly announced the city’s plan to issue same-sex partnership certificates. The decision was made after the petition submitted by the support group. “We hope we can show our positive attitude that respects sexual diversity in the city,” the mayor said.

“We are still in the process of deciding when to start it, but within the first six months of 2019,” said the mayor. The city will start making detailed plans from now on.

The mayor insisted that not only making guidelines and ordinances, but also raising awareness and achieving better understanding of LGBTQ people in the city need to be prioritized. He also insisted that the citizens need to understand this as a human right issue and it need to be handled carefully.

In addition to it, he said “the fact that same-sex partnerships are handled differently in other municipalities should be changed because it has to be discussed at the national level. It is crucial for us to bring this up to the national level and to ask the government to establish a same-sex partnership system.”

After the news, Rainbow Saitama Group, a support group working in Saitama Prefecture, announced that they will start an online petition and submit it to all the cities in Saitama Prefecture in order to make Saitama LGBTQ- friendly.

07/03/2018