Tokyo's Shibuya goes it alone with gay partner certificates

When Tokyo's Shibuya ward breaks a conservative taboo this summer, and issues Japan's first partnership documents to gay couples, Hiroko Masuhara and Koyuki Higashi plan to be first in line.

"We've been together for four years, but as far as the law is concerned we're just friends sharing a room," says Ms Masuhara. "If one of us got sick, it means we could be treated as each other's next-of-kin, and that's a big comfort."

The creation of partnership documents in one ward of one city is a long way from full gay marriage, but it shows how a country often regarded as monolithic and conservative is becoming more comfortable with diversity.

The partnership documents, which Shibuya ward voted to create this week, have little legal force; for example, the ward will accept them in joint applications for municipal housing.

But the bigger effect is political. Homosexuality has long been tolerated in Japan, but gay people often suffer discrimination and opt to hide their sexuality as a result.

"It's not perfect, but just talking about this will get more people thinking about the rights of gay and LGBT people, so I think it's having a big effect," says Ms Masuhara.

"The important thing here is less the contents of the system than changing peoples' perception," says Fumino Sugiyama, an LGBT campaigner who once represented Japan's women's fencing team but now lives as a man.

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The noisy campaigns which advanced same-sex marriage in the US and UK tend to be unpopular in Japan; as a result, the change in Shibuya came about through a much softer, more organic approach.

"Even if the numbers in a group are small, if they're having a hard time, what can we do to fix it?" is how Mr Sugiyama describes the attitude. "Of course, that includes LGBT people."

The politician behind the proposal, Ken Hasebe, is a married former advertising man thinking as much about his constituency - Shibuya is the trend-setting, creative centre of Tokyo - as gay rights.

"I didn't really notice LGBT people when I was a child," says the independent member of the Shibuya City Council at his office in the Harajuku fashion district. "The first time it really struck me was when I visited New York aged 20 and a gay attendant at an art gallery tried to pick me up!"

His pitch is also about what gay rights can do for Shibuya.

"Compared with when I was young I felt the brand power of Shibuya has got weaker," he said. By taking a step on partnership documents, he hopes to attract creative people to the district, and boost its reputation as a trend-setter.

"If we change Shibuya, we change Tokyo, and if we change Tokyo we change Japan," says Mr Hasebe. All of the campaigners want Japan to adopt full-scale gay marriage, although that is unlikely under the rule of conservative prime minister Shinzo Abe, and his Liberal Democratic party.

While Mr Hasebe does not fear a voter backlash at elections this month, the change in Shibuya was opposed by a noisy minority of conservatives.

Masayoshi Kimura, a local LDP politician, called the process used to pass the law "administrative terror". Ganbare Nippon, a right-wing nationalist group, organised demonstrations against it.

As in other developed countries, however, attitudes towards gay marriage in Japan are changing fast. According to a recent poll by the Mainichi newspaper, it now has majority support, with 44 per cent in favour and 39 per cent against.

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