See No Evil
Japan's refusal to act on discriminatory legislation has created refugees
Let me begin by crediting my friend Edward Lipsett for sharing this Asahi News article. I’ve known Edward since my days as a freelance translator—he published my translation of a horror short story by Tei’ichi Hirai, Midnight Encounters, which was nominated for a Science Fiction/Fantasy Translation Award in 2011.
As of this moment, the article exists only in Japanese. Let me translate it for my readers.
Canada Grants Refugee Status to Japanese Couple, Citing Persecution Within Japan
Two Japanese women received refugee status in Canada last autumn. The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada noted that the plight of the two gay women was compounded by multiple levels of discriminatory persecution in Japan and a lack of options for legal redress in Japan.
The women, one of whom is in her fifties and the other in her thirties, were born and raised in Japan. Ongoing discrimination, both at work and within their families, resulted in their flight to Canada in 2021. Refugee status was granted in September 2023 after interviews and hearings at which the couple presented more than 200 pages documenting the discrimination they experienced in Japan and their status under Japanese law.
Their notice of refugee status cited not only the discrimination the two underwent but also a report from the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to Japan, which noted the pervasive discrimination against women throughout Japan as well as Japan’s ongoing refusal to honor the full human rights of both women and sexual minorities.
When asked why they agreed to be interviewed for this article, the two women noted that many women and LGBTQ+ people in Japan face the same difficulties they did. The women consider their refugee status a wake-up call to both the Japanese government and the people of Japan.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees Report indicates that dozens of Japanese people are granted refugee status in other countries every year. However, there are no statistics on the reasons for said status.
Hiro and I, together with many of our queer friends in Japan, believe that change is coming. I suspect, though, that the government of Japan will offer marriage equality before it formulates any legislation to address the pervasive misogyny in Japan.