Tokyo to recognise same-sex unions but not as legal marriage

People march with rainbow-coloured and heart-shaped posters and a banner during the Tokyo Rainbow Pride parade in Tokyo’s Shibuya district in 2017 (Shizuo Kambayashi/AP)

Japan’s capital Tokyo has announced it will start recognising same-sex partnerships to ease the burdens faced by residents in their daily lives, but the unions will not be considered legal marriages.

Support for sexual diversity has grown slowly in Japan, but legal protections are still lacking for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.