Photo/Illutration Plaintiffs, including Eri Nakaya, right, hold a news conference in Sapporo on March 14. (The Asahi Shimbun)

A small book titled “Sekai ga Moshi 100-nin no Mura Dattara” (If the World Were a Village of 100 People) became a best-seller in Japan in 2002.

Retold in Japanese by Kayoko Ikeda with a side-by-side English translation by C. Douglas Lummis, the book’s message was that we are not seeing the world in its entirety.

It goes on: If 100 people lived in this village, 52 would be women and 48 would be men; 20 are undernourished and 14 cannot read.

Of the wealth in this village, six people own 59 percent; one has a college education.

In the last two decades since the book’s publication, the population of the world has ballooned from 6.3 billion to 8 billion.

I believe we need to take another look at the “village” now, based on the latest numbers.

Ikeda said she has done just that, but from a little different perspective. She divided the population into heterosexuals and homosexuals.

When she gave a lecture on this subject and explained their ratios, a young member of the audience asked her: “Don’t I exist in this village? I’m bisexual.”

Since then, advances have been made in society’s understanding of the diversity of people’s gender identification and sexual orientation.

But the legislature is still stuck in its ways and does not recognize same-sex marriage.

However, the Sapporo High Court on March 14 unequivocally stated that Japan’s lack of legal provisions for same-sex marriage is in violation of the Constitution.

In the ruling, the court empathized with same-sex couples whose “human activities” are being impeded and called for swift remedies.

The judge also explained that this was a matter of personal dignity.

This feels as if dawn is breaking over a dark road.

The plaintiffs must have sought only one thing: To be treated like everyone else in their village.

The Diet must get moving.

One in 10 Japanese people are sexual minorities such as LGBT, according to a survey by advertising and public relations giant Dentsu Inc.

That percentage is said to be about the same as that of left-handed people in Japan.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 15

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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