Linda Lim TOKYO, July 14 -- The LGBTQ community and their allies hope the upcoming upper house election will help advance the national discussion on LGBTQ rights in Japan and lead to legal recognition. Small headway has been made at the local level, with some municipalities, starting with two wards in Tokyo in 2015, issuing "partnership certificates" to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender couples. But such moves have yet to translate into national legislation and marriage equality remains unrecognized by the Japanese government. The situation prompted 13 same-sex couples to sue the Japanese government in February alleging unconstitutional treatment. Transgendered people can change their sex on their family registries in Japan but to do so they must jump through multiple hoops including invasive gender reassignment surgery. Shigeyoshi Suzuki, a 41-year-old elementary school teacher in Tokyo, is expecting politicians to "take the initiative to get involved" in LGBTQ issues in the July 21 House of Councillors election. "Through active discussions, I would want the circle of understanding to expand to include non-LGBT individuals," he says. He realized he was attracted to people of his own gender when he was a young child growing up in Ibaraki Prefecture near Tokyo. But he hid his sexual orientation until his late 30s, afraid that the friendships he had forged over the years would be broken. "I'd always told children to be speak honestly but I was hiding. That was not fair of me," Suzuki said. He became more publicly active in LGBTQ matters, including participating in a study group commissioned in April by his home prefecture. In July, Ibaraki Prefecture became the first of Japan's 47 prefectures to issue partnership certificates for LGBTQ individuals, raising hope that other prefectures would follow. Local governments, however, can only do so much. With partnership certificates, gay and lesbians couples are treated equally to straight couples in terms of living in municipal housing or being allowed to make medical decisions for each other. But these rights are only applicable locally. The campaign for the upper house election has become an opportunity for parties to tout their credentials as being open to diverse communities. LGBTQ candidates are also jumping into the fray to push for recognition of their rights. There have been at least eight openly LGBTQ lawmakers including local assembly members since 2005, according to the LGBTQ Policy Information Center of Japan. Two -- Taiga Ishikawa and first-timer Hiroko Masuhara -- are running this July. "If LGBTQ individuals do not raise their voices, society's understanding and legislation will not advance," said Ayako Fuchigami, 44, of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, who is transgender. After changing her sex in the family register, she ran for the first time for the Hokkaido assembly in April, winning a seat. "As more discussions unfold regarding marriage equality between candidates and voters, I want there to be a feeling that the national government needs to get (this done)," she said. Frustration with the government's slow response led Hiroko Masuhara, 41, to run as a CDPJ candidate in Kyoto with support from her partner Kazuyo Katsuma, the famed 50-year-old businesswoman. "Diet representatives are the slowest (in making changes) despite the shifts of attitude among citizens," she said.
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