ETA: Japan is (sot of) doing what the US did, a few municipalities are legalizing it, and the number of municipalities doing so are increasing. But it’s not yet recognized at the national level right now. But those city- or ward-level laws allow same-sex couples important tax and service benefits, and call attention to the issue.
The other thing that Japan does, which is interesting, is it recognizes marriages which are recognized by another country. Ok, that in and of itself isn’t interesting, but it what it means is that if a same-sex couple with one foreign spouse has their marriage legally recognized in the foreign spouse’s home country, then the couple is eligible for a family/spouse visa that allows the foreign spouse to live and work in Japan.
All these little developments make me hopeful that greater equality for LGBTQ in Japan is just s matter of time.
G was pleasantly surprised by the degree of acceptance he experienced in general, and that he received from family, when he was in Taiwan last year. That was the first time he'd been there in decades, and the first time he'd been there since he came out in his thirties. Many, if not most, of his Taiwanese relatives were not aware that he was gay; for most of them, this was his coming out. His one cousin, who had known, told him that it was really a non-issue, even to his eighty-plus year old uncle, who was the owner of a large engineering firm. He'd had gay employees for years and despite his age, actually held very contemporary views toward LGBTQ folk. This was true throughout his family, and they were all disappointed that I hadn't come along with him. They all said that they wanted the two of us to travel to Taiwan as soon as possible, so they can truly invite me into the family there.
