Photo/Illutration Kazuo Yana campaigns during the 2014 Lower House election. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Conservative members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party raised all sorts of objections to wording in legislation designed to protect sexual minorities against discrimination, leaving the issue unresolved for now.

A key sticking point at the May 20 meeting of the LDP was the inclusion of wording that “discrimination will not be tolerated.”

Kazuo Yana, a Lower House member representing a district in Tochigi Prefecture, went as far to state that sexual minorities were “resisting the preservation of the species that occurs naturally in biological terms.”

He suggested that the proposed wording in the legislation would ensure that such a comment would not be allowed in the future.

Some participants were aghast at Yana's remark, but others defended him.

“A situation is emerging of not being able to say such comments because that would lead to political suicide” for that individual, said one participant.

In response to questions from The Asahi Shimbun, Yana gave a written response in which he declined to comment because the meeting was held in a closed-door session.

He said he supported the main gist of the legislation, which was to promote understanding about sexual minorities.

Shoji Nishida, an Upper House member, expressed concern that Japanese society would disintegrate if lawsuits were submitted whenever someone felt discriminated against. He said everyone had an obligation to be tolerant toward one another to protect society.

In response to questions from the Asahi, Nishida said his comment was meant to raise concerns about the possible restraints on everyone if even the slightest discriminatory remark was turned into a major issue.

For that reason, he wanted the new wording to be removed from the proposal.

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