Equal Partners
Five years in, the ACCJ’s campaign for marriage equality gains speed.
In September 2018, the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) released a viewpoint entitled Support the Recruitment and Retention of Talent by Instituting Marriage Equality in Japan in collaboration with the Lawyers for LGBT & Allies Network (LLAN) and five other chambers of commerce. Five years later, the viewpoint has been endorsed by 139 domestic and international entities.
Across Japan, support for marriage equality is gaining momentum among the population, with 278 municipalities and prefectures now offering same-sex partnership registration. This includes the Tokyo Metropolis as well as major cities such as Sapporo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Fukuoka.
Traction can also be seen in the general population, with surveys indicating support for marriage equality of 44 to 82 percent, with stronger support among younger people and women.
Yet calls for marriage equality continue to fall on deaf ears in the Diet.
“This year, we did have the very first LGBT legislation, the ‘awareness bill,’ so that domino has fallen,” said LLAN co-founder and co-chair Alexander Dmitrenko. He noted that the watered-down language does little more than say, “Please be aware there are gay people out there.”
But there are ways to influence the national government, he said.
“One way is to really work with local governments to ensure that, to the extent they can support recognizing equality, they do it.”
Some prefectural governments, he said, have made strong efforts to afford greater rights to same-sex partners.
Dmitrenko said the LGBT community is very grateful for this, but warned that, when talking about this progress, “we need to be very careful not to dilute focus on the actual goal, which is equality. These move us a small step closer, but they’re not equality.”
A second way, he explained, is through the courts.
The impact of the ACCJ viewpoint can be seen in litigation efforts. In 2021, Sapporo District Court Judge Tomoko Takebe referenced the ACCJ position in a case brought against the government by three same-sex couples. Takebe ruled that prohibition of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, but denied demands for compensation.
There have also been favorable outcomes in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Fukuoka. The message from the first-level courts was that there’s definitely discrimination. And, like Sapporo, these cases also referenced the ACCJ viewpoint.
“But ultimately, court cases, unlike in the US, can’t change the law. Only the Diet can,” Dmitrenko explained. “Yet, those cases create important pressure points.”
Growing support from Japanese corporations is also helping move the needle. The Business for Marriage Equality campaign had the support of 458 companies and organizations as of December 8.
The ACCJ issued an open letter to the government on April 21 stating the business case for marriage equality and protection of LGBTQ+ rights, and will soon release an updated viewpoint. Both can be viewed on the ACCJ website. Any company can endorse the viewpoint by contacting info@llanjapan.org.
Dmitrenko is confident that Japan will eventually join its G7 partners in recognizing same-sex marriages.
“It’s a very slow, local train to equality, making all the stops, getting everyone on,” he said. “Which is fine. Just a little faster, please.”
