- 14 Mar 2002
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On Friday, the House of Councillors passed a law promoting understanding of the LGBTQ community and their concerns. The media unanimously described the new bill as "watered down". Some conservative lawmakers said the measure was "too permissive."
Meanwhile, the Chinese consul general in Osaka Xue Jian said, "Tampering with gender is a deformity, not the evolution of human civilisation".
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Japan, the only Group of Seven (G7) nation that does not have legal protection for same-sex unions, had initially pledged to pass the law before hosting a G7 summit last month. However, wrangling over the bill meant it was only submitted to parliament for consideration on 18 May, the day before the summit began. The initial draft stipulated that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity should "not be tolerated" but was changed to "there should be no unfair discrimination," which critics say may tacitly encourage some forms of discrimination. Despite the bill being watered down, some members of PM Kishida's ruling Liberal Democratic Party still broke ranks with party directives, boycotting or walking out of Tuesday's vote in the lower house and the final say in the upper house.
Meanwhile, the Chinese consul general in Osaka Xue Jian said, "Tampering with gender is a deformity, not the evolution of human civilisation".
Xue tweeted in Japanese on Wednesday, "I don't mean to discriminate against sexual minorities, but tampering with gender is a deformity, not the evolution of human civilisation." The consul general also said, "the absolute minority is effectively forcing us – the absolute majority" and claimed it goes against the basics of majority-rules democracy that the West has long advocated.
Chinese diplomat causes stir in Japan after calling trans people ‘deformed’
Chinese consul general in Osaka Xue Jian said ‘tampering with gender is a deformity, not the evolution of human civilisation’.