16. LGBTQ+ Rights Issues and the 2024 Japanese Election

LGBTQ+ rights issues have increasingly become a divisive issue in Japanese politics, and LGBTQ+ related policies reflect each party’s ideological position on family and human rights issues. This chapter analyzes Japanese major parties’ political positions on LGBTQ+ rights issues through a study of their manifestos. It begins with a summary of the LGBTQ+ rights issues currently being faced in Japan and their historical context, followed by a discussion of the first LGBTQ+-related law since the 2004 GID Act and the major LGBTQ+ rights judicial cases during the 2021–2024 Diet term. Then it discusses the weaponization of LGBTQ+ rights by the Japanese religious right. Finally, the chapter proceeds to an analysis of Japanese ruling and opposition parties’ LGBTQ+ policies in the 2024 general election, exploring the kinds of LGBTQ+ issues that became politically divisive and their influence on the election. In the conclusion, this chapter points out that the Japanese political parties’ manifestos in the 2024 election indicate that LGBTQ+ policies and narratives in general are moving in a more conservative and less LGBTQ+-friendly direction, although the CDP, a pro-LGBTQ+ left-leaning party, consolidated its position as the largest opposition party, threatening the LDP’s majority.