How the loud-and-proud Fab Five were able to find success in a country that lags behind others when it comes to LGBTQ issues.
gay rights
Ten same-sex couples are filing a joint lawsuit against the Japanese government, calling for real marriage equality.
The new ad will bring tears to your eyes while revealing some interesting statistics about Japanese society.
Panasonic, the Japanese electronics producer and one of the Olympic Games’ biggest sponsors, announces sweeping policy changes.
On November 28, the results of Japan’s first national survey about attitudes toward gay marriage were revealed. What kind of image did they paint of the people of Japan?
In a landmark move last February, Shibuya Ward in Tokyo announced it would begin legally officiating same-sex partnerships, giving gay couples the same rights as married heterosexual couples. While the movement, set to begin in October this year, has received some scrutiny, it has also seen plenty of support.
Now, in what may be the beginning of a domino effect, one of Shibuya’s neighboring wards, Setagaya, has also announced that it will be offering the same legal recognition to same-sex couples, beginning this November.
Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward made headlines and had supporters of LGBT rights praising its progressiveness this past February when it announced that it would begin offering “partnership certificates”, which would extend the same legal benefits that married couples enjoy to same-sex couples.
While Japan may still be some way from following many Western countries’ leads and legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, the country is gradually making progress. Take, for example, KDDI – one of Japan’s major telecommunications companies – which has just announced its decision to offer their “family discount” to same-sex couples who provide a partnership certificate.
Gay rights have made huge steps these last few years with the latest win coming in the form of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage throughout the country. However, the fight for equal rights is still long from over in the rest of the world as many countries don’t recognize gay marriage or even open displays of homosexuality.
While parts of Japan are supporting equal rights, Russia, one of its neighbors to the northwest, has traditionally been against homosexuality since its days as the Soviet Union. And what about today? How do Russians feel about two men just walking down the street, holding hands? A Russian YouTube video seeks to answer these questions with a social experiment.
In many countries around the world. LGBT rights are an obvious facet of equality, but in many other countries the struggle for progress is very slow going. Take India for example, which still forbids homosexuality by law, and anyone convicted can face up to 10 year of imprisonment with hard labor.
That’s why this short-movie advertisement by apparel company Anouk is grabbing so much attention for its bold decision to include a lesbian couple.
It’s nice when something invisibly quotidian is tweaked in a way that grabs your full attention. Previously we’ve talked about slightly altered street signs and artistic renderings of subway maps, and now the humble cash machine gets an eye-grabbing makeover in the interest of LGBTQ inclusivity.
A survey conducted by a Japanese LGBT rights organization has been extremely revealing about the main political parties’ attitudes towards sexual minorities, and is something to think about for voters heading to the polls this weekend.
One of Japan’s leading dictionaries has made a significant (and arguably long overdue) step towards acknowledging and normalizing homosexuality by revising the entries for words relating to love and sex. They have removed restrictive references to these feelings existing only between a man and a woman, opening up the definition of love to everyone — gay, straight, or otherwise.
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