Japan's parliament is set to pass a bill to promote a better understanding of the LGBT community as early as June 16 with the needed votes from the ruling majority secured, lawmakers said Wednesday, despite lingering controversy over the legislation.
Earlier in the day, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, agreed with the opposition camp to vote on the bill Friday at a committee of the more powerful House of Representatives. The current Diet session is slated to end June 21.
The ruling and opposition parties have been at odds over the definition of certain words that would affect the practicality of the legislation.
Japan lags behind the other Group of Seven countries in terms of legal protections for sexual minorities, lacking laws prohibiting discrimination against them or legalizing same-sex marriage or civil unions.
Pressure had been mounting at home and abroad for the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who heads the LDP, to enact the legislation to foster an understanding of sexual minorities ahead of the G-7 summit that ended May 21 in his constituency of Hiroshima.
The law-making process, however, did not go smoothly amid deep-rooted opposition from conservative LDP members who uphold traditional family values, such as the role of women in giving birth and raising children.
In consideration of those cautious of the legislation, some expressions in the bill have been watered down from a version crafted by the ruling and opposition parties in 2021, which eventually was not submitted to the Diet due to a backlash from conservative LDP lawmakers.
The ruling bloc submitted the revised bill to parliament on May 18, a day before the opening of the three-day G-7 summit, but it has struggled to finalize discussions with opposition parties on the definition of gender identity.
At a party meeting on Wednesday, Komeito chief Natsuo Yamaguchi, a proponent of the legislation, called on the ruling and opposition parties to make efforts to support sexual minorities, who would "suffer the most" without a legal framework.
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