An aide to Japanese PM Fumio Kishida who said he would not want to live next door to a same-sex couple has been fired from his job.
Masayoshi Arai, an economy and trade official who joined the Prime Minister’s staff as a secretary in October, also told local media that he didn’t even like to look at LGBTIQA+ people.
“His comments are outrageous and completely incompatible with the administration’s policies,” the Prime Minister said, telling local media of his decision to remove Arai from his position. Arai had previously apologised for the comments that he made to the media saying they were “misleading”.
Polls in Japan have shown that a majority of its population support same-sex marriage and it’s the only nation in the G7 (Group of Seven Nations) that does not allow same sex marriage or civil unions. Japan will host the next G7 meeting in May.
A poll taken in July 2021, two months before Kishida became the nation’s leader, showed that 57% of respondents were supportive of changing Japan’s marriage laws.
In November last year a Tokyo court upheld the country’s ban against same-sex couples getting married but said it was concerned about the lack of legal protections for same-sex families. In Japan same-sex couples do not automatically inherit each other’s assetts and they are denied parental rights to each other’s children.
Speaking in the Japanese parliament the Prime Minister has described same-sex marriage as an issue that will need careful consideration because of its impact on family structure.
OIP Staff, image has been digitally created.
You can support our work by subscribing to our Patreon
or contributing to our GoFundMe campaign.
