The city of Tokyo in Japan has announced that it will recognize same-sex unions by November. A status that does not, however, give the same rights as marriage, which is still only reserved for heterosexual couples.
“We have been collecting public opinions for the past two months and we have heard the opinions (of same-sex couples) who have said that they want to be recognized as partners,” a spokesperson for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government told a spokesperson on Wednesday.
The city authorities will ask the local assembly to approve the revision of a decree next month, then to start accepting files in October to issue “partnership certificates” next November.
This status would allow same-sex couples to access the same services as married couples, such as access to city-run housing. According to the AP News news agency, homosexual couples are sometimes prevented from returning to the hospital for visits, or from benefiting from other services reserved for married couples.
An increasingly common procedure in Japan
The Tokyo government has indicated that “partnership certificates” between two men or two women will only be issued to adults who reside in the Japanese capital, including foreign nationals.
The goal is “to promote understanding of sexual diversity among Tokyo residents and reduce the inconveniences of daily life for sexual minorities in order to create more congenial living conditions for them,” the metropolitan government said in a statement. communicated.
In 2015, the capital’s Shibuya ward became the first in Japan to begin issuing symbolic “partnership” certificates to same-sex couples, and other Japanese communities and townships have since followed suit. Yet Japan is the only G7 country that does not recognize same-sex unions, and its Constitution states that “marriage can only take place with the mutual consent of both sexes.”