気持ちいい？

気持ちいい？

This blog post is in regards to the article "Japan's LGBT+ progress outpaces politics" by Nikkei Asian Review.

The Situation

Japan appears to be on the verge of a civil rights breakthrough related to its LGBT community. This past year (2019) has had multiple instances of legal progress for LGBT peoples at the scale of "local governments, courts and even ministries" while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe remains reticent. One of the barriers to the legalization of gay marriage is related to the Japanese constitution's heteronormative definition of marriage. This constitution has been never been altered since it was authored after the war. However, there are those who say that amendment of the constitution is not necessary to allow gay marriage. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that much of Japan is in favor of legalizing gay marriage and the "business community" has also expressed this sentiment.

The Interesting Stuff

A Focus on Foreigners

This recent progress in the Japanese LGBT community's condition seems to be tied to LGBT foreigners. Most of the cases presented in the article were affordances provided to couples with one member not originally from Japan. This suggests that these legal allowances may have an ulterior motive of contributing to the solutions of Japan's diminishing population issue. Even the support of the "business community" is due to a desire to attract top talent which may be LGBT. It is fascinating to observe how this motif of sacrificing Japanese traditional values to solve its very modern problem of population loss permeates many of the social and political issues it faces. We have seen this is other articles from this class, and I imagine we will see it over and over again as we progress.

Politics Over Pathos

I found the politically abstracted nature of this issue interesting and somewhat disturbing. As a 20-year-old bisexual male, I have never been a part of an LGBT civil rights cause nor have I had the misfortune of experiencing homophobia, especially not at a systemic or governmental level. Without first hand knowledge, I suppose I have always assumed the progression of a civil rights movement to be largely one of emotion and values. However, from this article, it seems that values are far less important than constitutional implications, population and immigrant attraction, and economic benefit.

Expatriation

The article mentions that many gay Japanese people have left Japan in favor of places where they may express their identities more freely and with legal protections. Related to the above motif, Japan may be able to conserve its population better if it follows through with gay marriage legalization. Only the coming years can tell, but this seems likely to be a factor in the decision.