Following a notably brief debate, a Lower House committee on Friday approved a bill to promote the understanding of sexual minorities, clearing the way for its passage in the House of Representatives early next week.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition reached an agreement with two opposition parties — Nippon Ishin no Kai and the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) — over an amended version of the bill submitted to parliament in mid-May ahead of the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima.
The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and Reiwa Shinsengumi voted against the bill, as they have championed another bill drafted by a group of ruling and opposition parties in 2021.
While it is customary for legislation not sponsored by the government to receive backing from all parties, this time the tight parliamentary schedule prompted the ruling coalition to cut the time for deliberation and push through the bill. Discussions took place at an unusual speed, with the committee approving the proposal after only a few hours of debate.
Parliament is due to close in less than two weeks, on June 21.
“For the sake of alleviating the hardships of (sexual) minorities and concerns of the majority … this bill has great significance,” LDP Lower House lawmaker Yoshitaka Shindo, who submitted the legislation, told reporters after the committee meeting, stressing the need to deepen understanding and build an inclusive society for people with different sexual orientations.
The agreement follows months of internal wrangling within the ruling party, with conservative lawmakers expressing strong resistance toward wording used in the 2021 cross-party bill.
The phrasing used in the legislation — which talks of fostering understanding among the general public, rather than designating specific rights for individuals or groups — largely reflects language already present in the watered-down version presented by the ruling parties.
The four parties eventually settled on the English expression “gender identity” in its katakana version (“jendā aidentiti“) — as proposed by Nippon Ishin and the DPP — over the Japanese expression used in the LDP-Komeito version. By using the English loanword, which sounds more ambiguous than the Japanese term (“seidouitsusei“), lawmakers aimed to avoid further conflict over wording, in consideration of the LDP’s internal dispute over gender self-identification.
