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Wataru Ishizaka | |
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Born | 1976 (age 47–48) |
Nationality | Japanese |
Occupation | Politician |
Wataru Ishizaka (石坂 わたる, Ishizaka Wataru, born 1976) is a Japanese politician, social worker and former school teacher for the disabled. He became one of the first two openly gay male politicians elected to office in Japanese history in April 2011 when he was elected to the Nakano, Tokyo ward council. [1] The other was Taiga Ishikawa, who was elected to the Toshima ward council.
Born in Ota-ku, Tokyo, Ishizaka grew up in Inagi City.
In March 2000, he graduated from Seikei University, as part of the Faculty of Economics, Department of Economics, International Society Course. In 2001, he completed the Department of Developmental Disorder Education, Special Course of Special Education, Chiba University . In 2002, he became a teacher at Asahi Yogo School.
In 2010, he completed the master's program at the Graduate School of Social Design, 21st Century, Rikkyo University.
In the election on April 24, 2011, he became Japan's first openly gay public officer with Taiga Ishikawa, who was first elected to the Toshima Ward Parliament on the same day. [2] He is also the first member of the Nakano Ward to have a mental health worker qualification. [3]
On July 6, 2017, he helped to establish the "LGBT municipality Parliamentary League." It aims to spread regulations and measures to protect the human rights of sexual minorities to local governments throughout the country through local assembly. [4]
Aya Kamikawa is a Tokyo municipal official. With her election in April 2003, she became the first openly transgender person to seek or win elected office in Japan.
Nakano is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Nakano City.
Toshima is a special ward in the Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. It is one of the eight central wards of the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Located in the northern area of Tokyo, Toshima is bordered by the wards of Nerima, Itabashi, and Kita in the north and Nakano, Shinjuku, and Bunkyo in the south.
Ikebukuro is a commercial and entertainment district in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. Toshima ward offices, Ikebukuro Station, and several shops, restaurants, and enormous department stores are located within city limits.
Shinjuku Ni-chōme (新宿二丁目), referred to colloquially as Ni-chōme or simply Nichō, is Area 2 in the Shinjuku District of the Shinjuku Special Ward of Tokyo, Japan. With Tokyo home to 13 million people, and Shinjuku known as the noisiest and most crowded of its 23 special wards, Ni-chōme further distinguishes itself as Tokyo's hub of gay subculture, housing the world's highest concentration of gay bars.
Kanako Otsuji is a Japanese LGBT rights activist, member of the House of Representatives for the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and retired karateka and taekwondoin. She is also former member of the House of Councilors, and a former member of the Osaka Prefectural Assembly. One of only seven women in the 110-member Osaka Assembly, Otsuji represented the Sakai-ku, Sakai City constituency. In May 2013, after her party member of the House resigned, Otsuji became the nation's first openly gay member of the Diet, but her term in office expired in July. She won a seat in the 2017 general election and became the first openly gay member of the House of Representatives.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Japan have fewer legal protections than in most other developed countries, although some developments towards stronger rights have been made in the 2020s. Same-sex sexual activity was criminalised only briefly in Japan's history between 1872 and 1881, after which a localised version of the Napoleonic Penal Code was adopted with an equal age of consent. Same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are ineligible for the legal protections available to opposite-sex couples, although since 2015 some cities and prefectures, covering over 60% of the population by 2023, offer "partnership certificates" to recognise the relationships of same-sex couples and provide some legal benefits. Japan is the only country in the G7 that does not legally recognize same-sex unions nationally in any form. In March 2021 and May 2023, the Sapporo and Nagoya District Courts ruled that not recognising same-sex marriage was a violation of the Constitution respectively. While in June 2022, the Osaka District Court ruled that not recognising same-sex marriage was not a violation of the Constitution, in November 2022, the Tokyo District Court ruled that the absence of same-sex marriage legislation was an unconstitutional state of affairs but did not violate the Constitution, though the court's ruling has no immediate legal effect. In June 2023, the Fukuoka District Court ruled that the ban on same-sex marriage was constitutional. A second ruling in September 2023 concluded that same-sex relationships should not be excluded from Japan's marriage system.
Taiga Ishikawa is a Japanese politician and LGBT activist. He was elected to the House of Councillors in the 2019 Japanese House of Councillors election, becoming the first openly-gay man to be elected to either chamber of the National Diet. Previously, he became one of the first two openly gay male politicians to win an election in Japanese history when he was elected in April 2011 to a seat in the Tokyo's Toshima ward assembly. Wataru Ishizaka, also openly gay, was elected in the same election to the Nakano ward council in Tokyo. Before he was elected to the city council, he was Mizuho Fukushima's chief of staff.
The state of Georgia mostly improved in its treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents in the years after 1970, when LGBT residents began to openly establish events, organizations and outlets for fellow LGBT residents and increase in political empowerment.
Tadatomo Yoshida is a Japanese politician and former member of the House of Councillors from the proportional representation constituency. He was elected twice, in 2010 and in 2019. He previously served as an Ōita prefectural assembly member.
The LGBT community in Tokyo is one of the largest in Asia. While Japan does not assign as much moral or social weight to sexuality as in the West, it is still difficult for Japanese people to come out in society as being LGBT; the community reportedly experiences homophobia even amongst those in the community. Only 5% of Japanese people report they know somebody who is LGBT.
The following is a timeline of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) history in the 20th century.
The following is a timeline of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) history in the 21st century.
Jin Watanabe, also known as Hitoshi Watanabe, was a Japanese architect responsible for many buildings in the inter-war years.
Tokyo 24th Ward is a Japanese original anime television series produced by CloverWorks. The series aired from January to April, 2022.
Tokyo is one of Japan's leading jurisdictions when it comes to civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Jurisdictions in Tokyo were among the first to establish partnership registries for same-sex couples, and Tokyo became the tenth prefecture-level government to establish a registry in November 2022. Previously in 2018, Tokyo became the first prefecture-level government to enact an LGBT-inclusive human rights law protecting against discrimination and hate speech.