The streets of Tokyo‘s Shibuya Ward were flooded with colour on April 21 as 15,000 community members and supporters participated in the 30th Tokyo Rainbow Pride parade.
Over the last three decades, social attitudes toward sexual minorities in Japan have changed significantly, as evidenced by a landmark Sapporo High Court ruling, which declared in March that Civil Code provisions that do not recognise same-sex marriage are unconstitutional.
Despite this progress, discrimination and prejudice against sexual minorities remain deeply entrenched. In response to these ongoing challenges, this year’s pride parade slogan was, “Don’t give up until we make change.”
Japan remains the sole nation among the G7 industrialised democracies – including France, the UK and Germany – yet to legally recognise same-sex unions.
