The progress of LGBT rights in Japan in the 2010s (original) (raw)

The 2010s was am onumental decade for the progress of LGBT rights in Japan. LGBTr ights and discrimination cases became political topics in the mainstream media, attracting public interest.C ontrastingw itht he political climateo ft he 2000s, when it was rather exceptional for politicians and local governments to promote LGBTr ights,4 7l ocal ordinances had institutionalized same-sex partnership certificates and/ora nti-discrimination laws that included sexual orientation and gender identity by March 2020 ("Pātonāshippu seido," 2020). In February 2020, Naruhito became the first Japanese emperor to mention LGBTp eople, advocating diversity and calling for tolerance toward social minorities in ap ress conference on his birthday(The Imperial Household Agency,2 020). These political changes cannots implyb ea nalyzed in terms of the historical discourses of Japanese sexual minorities' activism. In 2016,S hibuyaW ard in Tokyo suddenly introduced as ame-sex partnership certificate system for the first time in Japan. Before that,Japanese LGBTactivists had rarely, if at all, argued for such as ystem, which is highlys ymbolic but,a sIwill discussi nt hisp aper,o ffers nowherenearthe same legal rights as heterosexual marriage(Enoki, 2019). In the 2000s, they had often discussed systems that offered legal rights to same-sex couples,s uch as the French civil solidarity pact (PACS; pactec ivil de solidarité), which is very different from contemporaryJ apanese models such as Shibuya's (Akasugi et al., 2004). Thus, the notable gapi nJ apan between the activist political agenda of the 2000s and the institutionalization of LGBTr ights in the 2010s indicates ad iscursivea nd political transformation. This paper will contextualize Japanese mainstream pro-LGBTr ights discourses and representations-an ew politicization of LGBTissues-within domestic and international political contexts and analyze how general Japanese attitudes toward LGBTissues changed in the 2010s. Firstly, this paper discusses three factors that have particularlychanged LGBT discourses and public attitudes in Japan in the 2010s, contributingt ot he mainstreamingo fL GBTp olitics in society:t he LGBTm arket; the use of LGBTr ights in US diplomacy;a nd the2 020S ummer Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo. Secondly, it considers how Japanese local governments have become some of the main actors in the institutionalization of LGBTrights, even though they do not have the legal authority to changet he marriages ystem. Thirdly, it analyzes popular representations of LGBTr ights and visibility in Japan, focusing on whiteness, as Japan faces international, not domestic, political pressure to institutionalize LGBTrights Open Access. ©2 024 the author(s),p ublished by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the CreativeC ommons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.