(Part1) by Choko Ishioka
When it comes to Gender Identity Ideology, Japan may be taking a different route than the West. In Japan, we don't have the right word to translate the word “identity”. Therefore, many different translations are used. Homosexuality has never been banned in Japan, and Cross-dressing plays have been popular for hundreds of years, making it difficult for the Japanese to accept the concept of Self-ID.
In the past year or so, the issue of transgender people has suddenly come to the fore in Japan, as the LGBT anti-discrimination bill was debated. This bill was eventually scrapped, but the opposition parties are now saying that they want to legislate an LGBT anti-discrimination law.
"Law Concerning Special Exceptions to the Treatment of Gender Identity Disordered Persons”
Currently, there are no laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in Japan.
However, there is a law to change the gender registered at birth with surgical requirements. It was created in2003. Since then, this law has not become a nationwide topic. About 10,000 people have changed their registered gender without the public knowing much about it.
In Japan, this surgery is performed in general hospitals, so the hospitals that can be counted as gender clinics are those that provide hormone injections, and there are not many of them yet.
The person who was particularly enthusiastic about the enactment of this law was Chieko Nono, a member of the House of Councillors.
She was a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. A huge donation of over 200 million yen (About 110 yen per dollar) was made to Nono from a medical group that year. Donations from medical groups to the ruling LDP totaled about 700 million yen. The ruling party's project team for the enactment of this law had 10 members in addition to the aforementioned Nono. Six of them belonged to a right-wing religious group called the Shinto Political Federation of lawmakers.
医薬業界 自民に７億円/政治資金収支報告/首相、厚労副大臣ゾロゾロ (jcp.or.jp) (This link is available only in Japan)
However, no one pursued this donation in the National Legislature
The law was revised slightly five years later and is still in effect today.
The issue of gender reassignment has hardly been discussed until recently.
Many LGBT organizations
Now, Rainbow organizations are being formed one after another in Japan.
The founder of this organization (2010) is Gong Matsunaka.
He used to work for the famous giant Dentsu. ( Dentsu is a conglomerate that has been working with the government as an advertising company since World War II, and has become a giant. Even today, there is a high probability that this company will receive orders from the government, and Dentsu appears in most government-related projects.)
Tokyo Rainbow Pride is sponsored by a number of foreign companies and investment firms, including Facebook, Pfizer, J&J, ViiV Healthcare, Eli Lilly Japan, P&G, NIHON L'ORÉAL and Hewlett-Packard Japan, Ltd. Why do pharmaceutical and beauty companies love rainbow organizations so much?
J&J is heavily involved in transgender pharmaceuticals and sells mastectomies for young women in Canada.
The largest group is “Japan Alliance for Legislation to Remove Social Barriers based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (Japan Alliance for LGBT Legislation, J-ALL)”
超党派議員連盟結成に呼応した、当事者全国組織「LGBT法連合会」への賛同のお願い｜告知｜新着情報｜パートナー法ネット（特別配偶者法全国ネットワーク） (partnershiplawjapan.org)
There has been a same-sex marriage advocacy group called “Partner Law Network” since 2010, and from that group came EMA Japan in 2014, an organization that advocates for same-sex marriage.
That EMA Japan along with other organizations created in 2015 is the J-ALL. They are lobbying the "bipartisan coalition of lawmakers on LGBT-related issues" led by members of the ruling LDP to legislate LGBT laws. The leader of this bipartisan parliamentary group is an LDP member named Hiroshi Hase, who was also involved in the enactment of the law to change registered gender.
Three members of Congress who are supportive of this pro-same sex marriage group belongs to right-wing religious groups.
馳浩 神道政治連盟国会議員懇談会
橋本岳 日本会議
牧島かれん 神道政治連盟国会議員懇談会
They are involved in both same-sex marriage issues and LGBT issues.
Good Aging Yells, connected with Dentsu, connected with Partner Law Net, Out in Japan, and EMA Japan (related to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to create J-ALL. This led to a ruling party affiliated council.
You may not find it strange that a group calling for same-sex marriage would call for LGBT laws. However, there is a unique problem here in Japan.
The Japan’s Constitution defines marriage as "the consent of both sexes. Until now, this "both sexes" has been taken to mean a man and a woman. In order to allow same-sex marriage, there is an argument that the constitution needs to be revised. In other words, there is a possibility that same-sex marriage and LGBT laws will lead to the single goal of revising the Constitution.
The LDP's new party platform, enacted in 2010, clearly states that it will "create a new kind of constitution”.
I will be discussing the revision of Japan's constitution using wariness against gender identity ideology in Japanese people, in Part II
Bio: Choko Ishioka, is a mother of 2cats. A Japanese who grew up under Japan's peaceful and democratic constitution and loves it so much.
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