Tokyo starts recognising same-sex relationships

France 24 ^ | 01 NOV 22 | AFP staff writers

[Salman]

Tokyo (AFP) – Tokyo began issuing partnership certificates to same-sex couples who live and work in the capital on Tuesday, a long-awaited move in a country without marriage equality.

The certificates allow LGBTQ partners to be treated as married couples for some public services in areas such as housing, medicine and welfare.

More than 200 smaller local authorities in Japan have already made moves to recognise same-sex partnerships since Tokyo's Shibuya district pioneered the system in 2015.

The status does not carry the same rights as marriage under the law but represents a welcome change for couples like Miki and Katie, who have long had no official proof of their relationship.

"My biggest fear has been that we would be treated as strangers in an emergency," Miki told AFP at home in Tokyo, where photos of the Japanese 36-year-old with her American girlfriend Katie, 31, adorn the fridge.

Without a partnership certificate, the couple, who asked to be referred to by their first names, used to tuck a note inside their wallets with the other's contact details.

"But these were insubstantial, and we felt official documents certified by the local government would be more effective," Miki said as their grey-and-white cat frolicked in a rainbow necktie.

...

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Just what a country with a fertility rate around 1.2 needs!

[Jan_Sobieski]

LGBTQI mental illness will greatly enhance Japanese families and cultural cohesion! /s

Luke 17:28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

[ealgeone]

We certainly seem to be there don’t we.

[Magnum44]

[fwdude]

Any nation is fooling itself if they allow a tacit “compromise” by recognizing some unions with “rights” between unrelated individuals of the same sex. It is just a staging area for full homoFascism.

[Boogieman]

RIP Japan.

[aquila48]

Sad.

[Wuli]

At least they kept the distinction of civl partnerships versus marriage, which I axpect eill keep analogous differences in adoptions and similar matters relating to children.

[DoughtyOne]

Japan, you’ll be sorry...

[Ennis85]

I thought Japan already had something similiar like this in place before?