By YUTA OGI/ Staff Writer
February 18, 2023 at 13:51 JST
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, right, meets on Feb. 17 with Gon Matsunaka, center, who heads Pride House Tokyo, and other representatives of groups for sexual minorities. (Koichi Ueda)
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida apologized directly on Feb. 17 to representatives of groups supporting sexual minorities for discriminatory remarks made by a former aide and promised to be more aware of their concerns.
Kishida met for about an hour with Gon Matsunaka, who heads Pride House Tokyo, Hiromi Fujii, an official with the Japan Alliance for LGBT Legislation, and Mika Yakushi, who heads ReBit, which provides support for the employment of sexual minorities.
“I extend my heartfelt apology for the unpleasant feelings caused by the extremely inappropriate comments that can be taken as discriminatory,” Kishida said at the meeting held at the prime minister's office in Tokyo.
He fired his executive secretary, Masayoshi Arai, on Feb. 4 after he said that he would not want to live next to sexual minorities or even set eyes on them in off-the-record remarks to reporters.
According to the participants, the three representatives explained what their organizations were doing to raise awareness and asked for legal revisions to ban discrimination against LGBTs and allow for equality in marriage.
Kishida pledged to take into consideration their views in moving forward.
Meanwhile, the government the same day established a new post under the prime minister to be in charge of promoting understanding of sexual minorities.
Masako Mori, a special adviser to Kishida, will concurrently handle the new post along with her current duties to promote the advancement of women.
But the ruling Liberal Democratic Party still was making little progress in starting discussions on legislation to promote the understanding of the LGBT community.
Koichi Hagiuda, the LDP policy chief, held informal talks on Feb. 17 with lawmakers who had handled the issue in the past, but no conclusion was reached on when discussions should begin within the party on the proposed legislation.
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