Akashi introduces the first "familyship" system in Japan for LGBT families starting January

Akashi municipal office, Nakasaki, Akashi, Hyogo, Sept. 26, 2019.
Photo by Toshihiro Hamamoto

    Akashi, Hyogo -- The city has announced that they will be introducing the "partnership and familyship" system where local governments will acknowledge LGBT couples and their parental relationships with their children. It will be effective starting from January of next year. Some companies already offer employee benefits for queer couples with children who otherwise don't have legal parental rights yet, but for municipal governments, Akashi will be the first to implement it in the country. They are also aiming to encourage other businesses to implement the same system.

    With the new "familyship" system, same-sex couples and their children will now be able to live in municipal housing, which is generally available for married couples and families that are recognized by the law. Furthermore, the same rules and rights will apply to LGBT families when they have to visit a family member in a city hospital, and they can also pick their children up from school whenever they feel sick.

　Aside from sexual minorities, the system also includes couples in a de-facto marriage, queerplatonic relationships, etc., regardless of what gender they might identify with, as long as they are residents over 20 years of age. The only condition is that there must not be another partner involved. The city will issue a card as proof of familial relationships. The guidelines for the new system will be in effect from January 8, 2021.

　Additionally, the city will subsidize the full payment of drawing up the partnership contract for couples. The new system will also specify that LGBT couples can share responsibilities like living expenses, modeled after civil partnerships. It will also include creating contracts to grant guardianship and decision making for partners who might have serious conditions like dementia, which affects one's mental capacity to make decisions.

　Mayor Fusaho Izumi is focusing on support for minorities and the vulnerable population, and creating policies for child support. They also hired two LGBT staff members through nationwide recruitment in April. They are also setting up a consultation counter led by LGBT folks and their families. "I hope to meet every individual need and to match the new image of a family. I expect that the rest of the country will follow our example in introducing this new system," Mayor Izumi said in a press conference on Dec. 10.

　Hiroko Masuhara, the head of the SDG promotions team that is in charge of the LGBT policies in the city, said, "It would be great to see everyone live true to themselves as new systems are put into place."

　The partnership system may not be legally binding, but ever since the system was introduced in Shibuya and Setagaya in 2015, more than 60 local governments have adopted it and have drawn more attention to understanding the situation of the LGBT community.

【Toshihiro Hamamoto】

Source: https://mainichi.jp/articles/20201210/k00/00m/040/153000c

Developing "care manager": decreasing the chances of people quitting their jobs to take care of their families by providing more support

    The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare will launch the program, named "care manager," which will be used to support workers who need to take care of their families (e.g. one's elderly or sick parents), starting next fiscal year. This plan is to decrease the number of people quitting their jobs to take care of their families. This fiscal year, they are setting a new in-service training program directed towards supporting people who are working and taking care of their family concurrently. They aim to expand the program through the local government.

　About 100,000 people quit their jobs to take care of their families in a year. The government is aiming to reduce the people quitting their jobs to zero, but many resign without knowing that there are support systems such as family leave.

　Care managers will take on the role of listening to family members and elderly folks who need caregiving and making care plans that will suit each individual. However, there has been a problem identified with a lack of knowledge about the support system for workers, even though they might have abundant knowledge and experience with supporting the elderly as they care for their family members. For this reason, the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare decided to train care managers to consider working conditions when making care plans.

　The new training program will take about a half to one day to complete the course material. Care managers, experts, and the caregivers’ support group, etc. are still discussing and reviewing the details of the course content. They intend to launch the program in its provisional phase this fiscal year. They are still examining case studies, which include the practical application of the support systems, like exemptions from working overtime and adjusting time schedules to accommodate shift transfers.

　The cases where quitting their jobs affect one's financial situation and mental health are endless, but companies also have a risk of losing their best employees if people continue to resign to take care of their families.

Source: https://yomidr.yomiuri.co.jp/article/20201207-OYT1T50156/?catname=news-kaisetsu_news

Opinion poll on sexual and gender minorities: support for same-sex marriage and LGBTQ discrimination ban went up to 64.8% and 87.7% respectively

    The results of the survey on the awareness and acknowledgment of sexual and gender minorities were presented on Sunday, Nov. 29. The number of people who support same-sex marriage rose to 64.8%, and 80% of that percentage is from people aged 20-30 years old. 87.7% agreed that there should be laws and regulations against bullying and discrimination against LGBTQ people.

    This survey was conducted by the research group led by Professor Kazuya Kawaguchi from Hiroshima Shudo University. In 2015, they did the first survey on awareness of sexual and gender minorities. They took a random sample nationwide from people ranging from 20-79 years old. There were 1,259 valid responses in the first survey. They conducted a similar survey in 2019 with 2,632 valid responses. Using these two surveys, they were able to compare results. It was clear that the number of people who held resentment against sexual and gender minorities have decreased from the last poll. The proportion of those who answered that they would be opposed to having a close friend being LGBT went down from 1/2 to 1/3 of the sample. Focusing on the age groups, they identified that the percentage decreased from adults aged 40-50 years old.

    When asked what they would do if someone they know is LGBT, many answered that they would find it unpleasant if they found out that their neighbour, colleague, sibling, or child, etc. were LGBT. Although the percentage went down from 2015, the people who answered "unpleasant" in 2019 were still more than half of respondents. (There were more men than women who chose this answer.)

    The same results were seen from the question, "What would you do if you know someone who changed their gender?" About half of the people answered that they would find it unpleasant to know if their sibling or child, etc. were transgender.

　Dr. Saori Kamano from the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research speculates that people are answering this way not because it's bad or they want it to stop, but it's more about how they don't know how to deal with it. She points out that it's not just holding feelings of rejection, but also about having worries and concerns regarding the topic.

"As parents, they are dealing with a lot of things if their child is LGBT, like figuring out what the best thing is to do and worrying about what life looks like for their child. We think this can lead to making bad decisions for their child. Even though family ties aren't easily broken, relationships can become more strained because of this," she said.

　For the question of same-sex marriage, 64.8% answered "agree" and "somewhat agree." The percentage increased by 13.6% since the 2015 poll. The percentage from adults aged 20-30 years old who answered "yes" rose to 81%; for ages 40-50, it went up to 74%, and for ages 60-70, it increased to 47.2%. Compared to the 2015 poll, the recent poll showed that adults aged 40-50 had the most increase in percentage by 19%.

　Furthermore, 87.7% of the people answered "yes" to creating laws and regulations against bullying and discrimination against the LGBT community. 69.9% answered "yes" to having a foster child system and having the ability to adopt children. More than half of these people agreed that LGBT history and issues should be compulsory in the education system. Additionally, the percentage of people who chose "no answer" for most of the questions seemed to have decreased in the recent poll. Related to this, Mr. Daiki Hiramori, who is a member of the survey group, observed that there is a possibility that people who couldn't answer because they either don't know what is being asked, why they're being asked about this, or they haven't thought about this before, have decreased compared to the last poll.

　Moreover, Dr. Kamano talked about how there is an increasing trend of people that have a more positive view on LGBT community compared to the last poll. "I have the impression that it was not only about having one LGBT policy being supported the most, but that the general awareness and sentiment of the population have changed as well. I believe the awareness shown through answering the survey from one part of a social environment where the LGBT community also resides in represents that it has already improved."

Sources of the survey's results:
Saori Kamano, Hitoshi Ishida, Takashi Kazama, Takashi Yoshinaka, Kazuya Kawaguchi
2020, "Awareness on sexual and gender minorities: 2019 Poll (2nd poll) National Survey Debriefing Distributed Document," JSPS Research Grant (18H03652), "Research on the Change in Awareness of Sexual Minorities and Related Policies," Lead Researcher Dr. Kazuya Kawaguchi, Hiroshima Shudo University
　
　In 2015, Shibuya ward enacted an ordinance to include same-sex partnerships. Corporate policies for LGBT workers also improved. This is the turning point for better treatment of the LGBT community. Based on the recent poll's results, the general knowledge of sexual and gender minorities have improved after 4 years since that last poll in 2015.

　Even though the families of LGBT folks might still hold resentment against them, Japan still has higher numbers of people agreeing to guaranteeing LGBT rights compared to other countries. 64.8% agree to same-sex marriage; 87.7% agree to banning discrimination against the LGBT community, and 69.9% agree to adoption.

　Society has already adjusted to accepting equal LGBT rights and same-sex marriage. This has become common knowledge. The rest depends on the National Diet.
　
Reference:
Same-sex marriage: 80% of the adults aged 20-30 agree. National Survey: Japanese aged 40-50 have shown decrease in answering their reluctance in accepting their friend if they were LGBT.
https://www.huffingtonpost.jp/entry/story_jp_5fc23a1ac5b61d04bfaa0456


Source: https://www.outjapan.co.jp/lgbtcolumn_news/news/2020/12/1.html