Japan LGBTQ activists launch engagement group ahead of G7

Japanese LGBTQ activists and rights groups have launched a civil “engagement group” to make policy proposals ahead of the Group of Seven summit in Japan and announced plans to hold an inaugural Pride 7 summit in Tokyo later this month, seeking to accelerate their efforts to get the Japanese government to adopt an anti-discrimination law.

Japan is the only member of the Group of Seven advanced industrialised nations that lacks a law protecting the rights of LGBTQ people.

“Other G7 members are watching if Japan enacts an anti-discrimination law,” said Natsuo Hayashi, co-director of the Japan Alliance for LGBT Legislation, a local civil group.

His group, joined by two other organisations, on Wednesday announced the launch of Pride 7, which plans to make policy proposals for G7 organisers in the hopes of achieving an LGBTQ anti-discrimination law in Japan while also addressing problems in other countries, especially in Asia. P7 is joined by rights organisations in 10 other countries, including six other G7 members, as well as Thailand, Vietnam, Botswana and Mexico, and the EU.

Gon Matsunaka, another member of the group, said a P7 summit will be held on March 30 with ambassadors from G7 nations and representatives of economic organisations and labour unions. Matsunaka said they plan to submit a policy recommendation to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

LGBTQ activists and their supporters have stepped up their efforts to achieve an anti-discrimination law following discriminatory remarks in February by a former Kishida aide, who said he wouldn’t want to live next to LGBTQ people and that citizens would flee Japan if same-sex marriage were allowed.