This is how advocacy works in Japan How can we build friendship between Taiwan and Japan? 

Date: 2024/09/23-2024/09/27
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Goals: Understand the transition of the ruling party chairman, the support and resistance to future gender initiatives; and visit various organizations for exchanges.
Outcomes: Visited more than 8 Japanese organizations and 2 politicians, and experienced and observed the Democratic Party’s election. Learn more about Japanese politics and social culture.

TEC’s executive director Joyce Teng and Advocacy & Civic Engagement Project Manager WongWong traveled to Japan in September 2024 to learn how Japanese advocacy organizations promote LGBTQ+ issues and what cultural differences lie between Japan and Taiwan. 

Background to the trip to Japan    
“The election of the party leader of the ruling party, I thought it was a key moment to witness the birth of a new government,” Joyce tells us. This visit reflects the close attention TEC pays to the political environment in East Asia: “As another East Asian country, it is important to learn how Japan and South Korea integrate the advocacy of LGBTQ+ issues in their democratic development.”

WongWong also mentions that this year, TEC has formed with its partners in Japan and South Korea the “East Asian Alliance against Discrimination,” and thus, it is necessary to study Japan and South Korea from different angles: “Japan shares some similarities with Taiwan in terms of its cultural background, social atmosphere, and civil participation. Yet some things are very different. This visit has allowed us to more comprehensively identify the current situation of the LGBTQ+ movement there, and to learn how advocacy organizations in other countries operate. This was a great learning opportunity for TEC.”

A new perspective brought by Japanese advocacy organizations
WongWong thinks this visit can be compared with the previous trip they took to South Korea: “Most people may think that the political environment in Japan is very monotonous because political turnover rarely occurs, and therefore, the advocacy groups and the civil society in Japan must be more conservative than in Taiwan and South Korea. Furthermore, some may even consider the prospect of the LGBTQ+ movement in Japan very dark. However, I found out during this trip that, in fact, within Japanese society, the acceptance rate for LGBTQ+ and same-sex marriage has reached 70%. While the political structure may still be difficult to break, the government is in fact pushing for changes slowly, unlike in Taiwan, where drastic policy changes happen because of political turnover.” WongWong feels optimistic about the LGBTQ+ movement in Japan, and she mentions that during the trip, she witnessed how an LGBTQ+-friendly politician was elected as the party leader, indicating hopes for Japan. 

Joyce mentions that LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in Japan each have their individual features. For example, Rebit runs a hotline providing workplace support and applies for subsidies from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on the one hand, and on the other hand, they manage to find more energy for advocacy because of these subsidies. The visit to Fifty-Project was the most memorable to Joyce: “This NGO specializes in training female candidates to run for office. The organization consists of only two members, the executive secretary, and the director-general, but they manage to maximize their resources. They selected 29 females from 40 to offer training, and in the end, 24 of them were elected. ” 

WongWong adds: “The work of Fifty-Project focuses more on how candidates network and offer each other support. In comparison, TEC’s training on political participation for the LGBTQ+ community emphasizes how to form a team, carry out political work, look for resources, and run an election campaign. Via a bi-weekly online course, Fifty-Project helps candidates form their teams, learn about election regulations,s and match campaign volunteers. The volunteers even assist the politicians in government oversight. 

In a courtroom, witnessing the difficulties faced by LGBTQ+ people in Japan 
In addition to visiting different organizations, Joyce and WongWong went to the Supreme Court to listen in on a case regarding marriage equality. “Two groups of plaintiffs shared their stories. The first group was a gay couple, who described the frustration they experienced as they continued to be treated by the legal system as strangers to each other even though having been in a relationship for years. The second group of plaintiffs was a couple, a transgender male and a cisgender female. The woman had a child from her previous marriage. After some adjustment, the child finally accepted the mother's new partner, and the transgender male became the main caretaker of the child after the mother was diagnosed with cancer. In the court, they talked about the challenges they faced in terms of medical treatment, healthcare, and transgender issues, which made me feel heartache and admiration at the same time.” The mood in the court brought WongWong to tears.  

While witnessing the trial, Joyce was also thinking: “What is the true meaning of democracy? I believe that democracy is to have every voice heard, especially that the true voices of LGBTQ+, rather than just some imaginations or cliches, should be present. During the visit, we met with our colleagues from Change.org. It is a platform that allows individuals to make petitions and assists those petitioners in collecting signatures and making offline contacts. For example, the petition to reform the uniform rules in schools was an interesting exercise of democratic values. Furthermore, the organization promoting females’ political participation Fifty-Project told us that they believed democracy was like a big project, and the aim of the project was to allow everyone to live together. Thus, it was necessary to initiate and maintain conversations for the sake of the project. This is a meaning of democracy that I’ve not thought of before.  ” 

Follow-up actions post Japan
This trip has helped Joyce and WongWong not only become more aware of the differences between Taiwan and Japan but also discover many similarities between the two countries in terms of government structure, household registration system, and advocacy strategies. Joyce shares with us some examples: “While TEC makes suggestions regarding how to train civil servants at the meetings of LGBTQ+ friendly congress representatives, Rebit takes one step further by drafting a policy manual for the government, in which they provide concrete policy measures. They have a service center in both Tokyo and Osaka, offering services for the transgender community, devising gender-equity education materials, and studying which policy may help the LGBTQ+ community, such as in terms of insurance, intimate relationships, and education. They suggest what resources the government may offer, and they even sometimes call local governments directly to ask for opportunities for future collaboration. They travel all over Japan, just like a sales representative. ” 

Meanwhile, WongWong noticed some similarities in terms of the unfriendly speeches one might hear in Taiwan and Japan: “We interviewed a publicly-out parliament representative. He mentioned that among the discriminating treatments he’d experienced, many were secret conversations people had in private, instead of open attacks. This is very similar to the online remarks and microaggression seen in Taiwan, which is different from the direct attacks and discriminating treatments one may experience in Europe or the US.” This trip has helped Joyce and WongWong identify the commonalities and differences among the member states of the East Asian Alliance, which will become an important reference for TEC when conducting regional studies and devising strategies.

The two of them also share with us some anecdotes from this trip to Japan: with some Japanese activists, they visited a karaoke bar run by a transgender owner, where Joyce even sang the song “Womxnly.” Another bar was owned by a gay artist, and all the bartenders working there were gay artists. The clientele of this bar was a bit older, and it was an important base for the local LGBTQ+ movement. This trip was a rare experience, which allowed the visitors to learn about the local society and discover the strategies of various advocacy organizations within a short period of time. Finally, Joyce tells us expectantly: “The network of the East Asian Alliance is taking shape!”   

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