Japan’s national government has yet to enact anti-discrimination legislation on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2018, the city of Tokyo adopted an important ordinance that protects LGBT people from discrimination. in line with the Olympic Charter and international human rights standards..

But several Olympic competitions, including the marathon, golf, fencing, race walking, and surfing, will take place outside of Tokyo in Hokkaido, Saitama, Chiba, Shizuoka, Kanagawa, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures. LGBT fans, athletes, and visitors in these prefectures will not be protected under Tokyo’s anti-discrimination ordinance.

The goal of this campaign is to pass a national anti-discrimination bill, or equality law, for all LGBT people in Japan.

Japan has increasingly taken a leadership role at the United Nations by voting for the 2011 and 2014 Human Rights Council resolutions calling for an end to violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and as a member of the UN LGBTI Core Group. As of July 2020, 56 municipalities in the country have passed ordinances that “unofficially” recognize same-sex relationships, and the national government incorporated protections against bullying for LGBT students in 2017.

Amendments to several labor laws in 2019 require all municipalities and large companies after June 2020 to take actions to prevent outing and other harassment. But LGBT people in Japan continue to face social stigma and enjoy fewer legal protections than other Japanese.

Prefecture governments have passed ordinances recognizing same-sex relationships with certificates. But these are unofficial documents that are not legally binding. Support for same-sex marriage has increased in Japan in recent years. Politicians close to the Prime Minister indicated that they might consider revising the constitution, which requires the “mutual consent of both sexes” to enter into marriage, but there has been no progress to date. Others, including opposition politicians, say that there is no need to change the constitution, and Japan’s civil code could simply be changed to include same-sex marriage.

Meanwhile, 13 couples across Japan filed lawsuits in February 2019 to challenge the constitutionality of the current law, which does not recognize same-sex marriage.

Trans people in Japan have been allowed to change their legal gender since 2004, but the procedure for doing so includes arduous and discriminatory requirements. They must appeal to a family court. Under the law, applicants must undergo a psychiatric evaluation and be surgically sterilized. They also have to be single and without children younger than 20. In 2017, Japan pledged to the United Nations that they would revise this law. In 2019, Japan’s Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that the law did not violate Japan’s constitution. However, two of the four justices wrote that they recognized the need for reform. Trans people in Japan continue to fight for legal reform, including a case currently before a district court in which a trans woman is challenging the denial of her right to change her legal gender as a parent of a child under 20.

The Olympic Charter specifically protects against discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation. In 2018, Tokyo’s municipal government passed a bill that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, linked directly to their hosting of the Olympics. In doing so, the city not only demonstrated its commitment to equal rights for all, but also to making the Tokyo 2020 games a springboard for human rights in Japan and beyond. The International Olympic Committee and the Japanese government’s decision to postpone the games for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic gives the entire country the chance to follow Tokyo’s lead.

LGBT people in Japan face challenges at every stage of life. For example, surveys show that about 60 percent of LGBT people have experienced bullying at school, and about half of LGBT people face difficulties at work. Since Japan does not have a national anti-discrimination law based on sexual orientation or gender identity, LGBT people are not protected from discrimination on this basis. The proportion of people who have attempted suicide is about 6 times greater among gay and bisexual people, and about 10 times more prevalent among transgender people, than the general population.

Japan already has laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability and sex discrimination in employment. Previous efforts to advocate for comprehensive non-discrimination laws were unsuccessful, so LGBT rights advocates in Japan believe undertaking efforts to pass the LGBT Equality Act are appropriate as the strategy for now.