The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly passed a bill this week that outlaws the government, citizens, and businesses from discriminating against individuals based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
The move comes ahead of Tokyo’s hosting of the 2020 Olympic games.
In the leadup to the 2014 Olympic games held in Russia, the Kremlin passed anti-LGBT legislation that drew the ire of the international community and sparked the Olympic Committee to place a stipulation in future host city contracts that bans LGBT discrimination.
The Olympic Charter states, “The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in the Olympic Charter shall be secured without discrimination of any kind, such as race, color, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”
This is the first law of its kind at the city level in Japan that protects gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals from prejudice in all levels of society.
Asian countries seem to be slower to adopt LGBT rights than western nations, said to Jitsopin Narrasettapong, a Thailand family law attorney. According to Narrasettapong, Thailand is slowly providing for LGBT rights but has a long way to go.
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