Taiga Ishikawa, Member of the House of Councillors, CDPJ
(The speech and Q & A will be in Japanese with English interpretation)
"Seeking a Society that Allows Differences"
While countries around the world are moving to legalize same-sex marriage, Japan appears to be only taking baby steps at the municipal and prefectural levels, with the issue often being ignored at the national level.
Recently however, there are signs that things are changing. In July, Japan's first openly gay man was elected to serve in the national parliament.
Taiga Ishikawa, an upper house lawmaker representing the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, will speak at the club about a range of issues concerning the gay community in Japan as part of his push for a society that allows people to be different.
From 2011, Ishikawa served for two terms as a Toshima city assembly member. He came out in 2002 at the age of 28 in his book "Where is My Boyfriend?" (Boku no kareshi wa doko ni iru?) and has been active since in the Japanese LGBT rights movement.
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