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 kinds of term deposits, such as “Star One Yen Term Deposit Plus,” “For Retirement Allowance Only, Star One Yen Term Deposit,” and “For Retirement Allowance Only, Mix Plan 1000.”
“Star One Yen Term Deposit Plus” offers you three levels of preferential interest rates for a year depending on your situations. “For Retirement Allowance Only, Star One Yen Term Deposit” offers you preferential interest rates depending on the retirement allowance you received within three years. You can combine your retirement allowance with your term deposit, foreign currency deposit, and investment trust and preferential interest rates are applied to your deposits in “For Retirement Allowance Only, Mix Plan 1000.”
The Tokyo Star Bank, Limited announced they would respond to the requests from same-sex partners only in Financial Lounge Shibuya Branch and Financial Lounge Shinjuku West Exit Branch for now.
“We celebrated our 15th anniversary in business this year. Along with expanding our business, we have seen many diverse staff, regardless of sex, playing active roles in our business for the last few years. We believe we can achieve sustainable success and produce new value for our customers by establishing a work- environment where each employee can perform at their full potential. This initiative is our next step toward diversity. We will keep trying our best to give an added value to our services and satisfy our customer’s demands.” The Tokyo Star Bank, Limited released their comments on “New Release.”
The businesses that have actively promoted LGBT support in workplaces in Japan are foreign companies, such as The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. They have taken in-house measures for LGBT employees, held job seminars for LGBTs, and sponsored LGBT support events as “LGBT Finance” for years.
However, there were not so many banks that released LGBT-friendly financial services in Japan. This time, The Tokyo Star Bank, Limited had financial services for family and successfully made a good impression on LGBT customers by including them into the family services. I bet more LGBTs will use their services from now on.
2016/11/11