Tokyo's Shibuya district begins issuing same-sex partnership certificates

The Shibuya district in Tokyo began issuing certificates Thursday officially recognizing same-sex partnerships as being of equal status to marriage, marking the first local government in Japan to support such a stature.

While the certificates are not legally binding, the move by the local municipality reflects a gradual shift in attitudes and push for greater tolerance and acceptance of those who are marginalized and discriminated against for being a member of a sexual minority group.

Shibuya's local city office will require local businesses and organizations, henceforth, including real estate companies, restaurants and hospitals, to treat holders of the certificates in exactly the same way they treat married couples, or face public disclosure of discriminatory practice.

"I want many people to know that same-sex couples are around you. This is a big first step forward," said the first recipients of the certificate Thursday at Shibuya Ward Office, Koyuki Higashi, 30, a former member of Takarazuka Revue all women's troupe, and 37-year-old businesswoman Hiroko Masuhara.

The pair were congratulated at the city office by Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe.

The new ordinance was enacted in March and same-sex couples aged from 20 years old who reside in Shibuya were eligible to apply for the certificates, following their filing of an official declaration stating their relationship was founded on love and mutual trust.

On April 1, the ordinance went into effect following the district assembly a day earlier voting overwhelmingly in favor of the ward issuing certificates to same-sex couples that confirm they are in relationships "equivalent to marriage," marking the first time a municipality in Japan has thrown its weight behind such a stature.

The former mayor of Shibuya, Toshitake Kuwahara, said at the time that accepting diversity reflected the district itself, which is a hodgepodge of shops, boutiques, embassies, restaurants, clubs and startups, and probably best known globally for its "scramble crossing" pedestrian junction, where hundreds of thousands of people converge daily from multiple directions to cross the roads en masse, before the lights change and vehicles push back the throngs.

But while Shibuya has been progressive in supporting the rights of Japan's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, and neighboring Setagaya Ward looks set to follow suit, as well as a handful of business including Lifenet Insurance and mobile carriers NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank expanding their services to cover gay couples, the state government in Japan does not recognize same-sex marriages.

Members of the LGBT, while hailing Thursday's move as a huge step forward for equal rights in Japan, still face discriminatory behavior, however, on a regular basis.

"When we go to places like Shibuya or Shinjuku, or even Roppongi, nobody cares that we're gay, because everybody is too busy doing their own thing and having a good time," Yuta Ishii, 28, a systems engineer in Shinagawa previously told Xinhua.

"But if we go outside of central Tokyo, say to Chiba or Saitama or further afield for a weekend trip to escape the hullabaloo of Tokyo, the discrimination we feel is far more intense and at times intimidating," Ishii said.

He recalled a time when he and his boyfriend visited a famous onsen (hot spring) region in Japan and were kicked out of the bath and the hotel for being openly gay.

Similarly, Ko Nishimura told Xinhua Thursday that he was denied no less than eight applications to move into apartments in Tokyo because of his sexual orientation. "When the estate agent found out that the guy I was apartment hunting with was my boyfriend, they said we would be ineligible to rent a property and passed the blame on to the apartment owners, in the majority of cases," he said.

In a poll taken by Dentsu Innovation Institute comprising 70,000 people, more than 5 percent identified themselves as being a member of the LGBT community in Japan, and other surveys have shown that attitudes towards "new marriages" in Japan have been changing over the years, with marked differences being shown by young people.

Compared to a poll spanning all generations which showed that 52 percent of pollsters opposed same-sex marriages, while 42 percent were in support, 70 percent of those surveyed under 20 were in support of same-sex marriages, Nihon Yoron Chosakai's latest survey revealed.

"We have never actually thought about getting married," said Ishii. "But now we're thinking of relocating to Shibuya because we spend so much time here anyway, it just makes sense, but more importantly, Shibuya has shown itself to be a progressive ward and I think, as a gay couple, we'd just feel more comfortable and accepted there," he said.

But experts maintain that fundamental change in Japan for equal rights for the LGBT community will take time.

"Today is definitely a step forward for the LGBT community, but so much more needs to be done and the first step is to address LGBT rights legally. With a legal foothold, acts of discrimination become hate crimes and thus should be dealt with more severely by the police and the courts. The next step has to be the legal recognition of LGBT rights here and I believe this will happen, but it could take quite a while," Keiko Gono, a sessional lecturer and soon-to-be-author, told Xinhua. Endit