Minaduchi

Gay man from Japan.
🌈 Fighting for marriage equality for everyone here.
I write about what life looks like without legal recognition.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] "Be patient. Someday it'll change."
That's what I'm always told here.

Japan is the only G7 country without marriage equality,
and we've waited years for that "someday."

Five of six high court rulings
have called the ban unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court is deciding now.

Still — "someday."

Your country was once told to wait, too,
and learned that "wait" can mean "never."

If you couldn't marry the one you love,
how many more "somedays" could you wait?

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] Same-sex marriage — honestly, I'm exhausted. Years of speaking up, and I still can't marry the person I love. But then I look at them, asleep beside me, and I just can't give up. I want to build a family with this person. That's why I'll write again tomorrow.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] The only G7 country without marriage equality,
he and I have loved each other for 30 years.

Every night, he takes his bath first.
While he does, I make the tea.
Two cups, side by side on the shelf.

Lately, the spots on his hands have spread.

Each night, I lay out his medicine.
Yet on paper, after all this time,
we are still strangers to each other.

Still, tonight there are two cups.
Tomorrow, I'll set out two again.

The law won't call us a family.
But these two cups already are.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

Support for same-sex marriage in Japan is now about 70% — and among people aged 18 to 29, it's around 80%. Opposition lingers mainly among older generations. Time is firmly on our side; as generations turn over, the outcome is already decided. So we won't give up.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] In a country without marriage equality: a city office.

"But Japan has partnership certificates," people say.
The clerk who hands them out knows the truth.

The couple who received one wept, holding hands.
No one dared say it aloud.

This paper holds no legal power.

No inheritance. No tax break. No survivor's pension.
Move to the next city, and it stops working.

What was handed over wasn't a promise.
It was a paper that asks — not one that binds.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] In a country without marriage equality — my frustration.

In public, a man said aloud:
"LGBTQ people are just sick, right?"

A friend said, "No, that's wrong."
But he said it again. Twice.

The WHO delisted it as an illness 36 years ago.

1 in 10 people are LGBTQ.
Even that friend could be one of us.

If anyone there heard those words,
the pain would be beyond imagining.

Think what you want. That's your freedom.
But saying it in public is another matter.
Someone beside you is one of us.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] After a day of ugly words for defending marriage equality,
I come home, and he says, "Welcome back."

It has been this way for thirty years.

He knows what I face out there,
yet he never says a word about it.

Only, on days like that, somehow,
the miso soup at dinner feels a little warmer.

This quiet life is what I am fighting to protect.

The law still calls the two of us "strangers."
Until it calls us "family," I will keep going.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] They call me "disgusting." Still, I won't stop
speaking up for marriage equality. Here is why.

It's not anger. It's not stubbornness.

Somewhere in this country, there are people
hiding who they are, just to survive.

At school. At work. Even in front of family.

Until the day they can stand tall and say
"I married the one I love" —

let the ugly words come. I'll take them all.

So today, I keep posting, calmly as ever.
Until this country changes, I will not stop.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] ~70% of the public supports same-sex marriage—even a majority of LDP voters do. Yet it's stalled because the ruling LDP, the largest party, won't move. Japan's the only G7 nation without it, and the party ignores even its own supporters. Can it really claim to represent the people?

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] Same-sex marriage: all 6 lawsuits now sit before the Supreme Court's 15-justice Grand Bench. Five of six high courts already ruled the ban unconstitutional; only Tokyo's didn't. This month ~36,000 signatures were handed to the Court. The tide is turning.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] I've heard every reason to oppose same-sex marriage. "Taxes"—same for straight marriage. "They can't have kids"—childless couples marry fine. "Tradition"—whose? "It'll cause chaos"—none of the 40 countries did. The only reason left: "because they're same-sex." That's what we call discrimination.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] To those who oppose same-sex marriage: what if your own child were gay? Would you oppose them marrying the person they love and finding happiness, too? The more you think "it doesn't concern me," the more I want you to consider this. It's a story that lives next to anyone.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] I'm someone seeking same-sex marriage. To those who found me through the viral post: I argue the complex stuff, but at the root it's simple. I want to marry the person I love. That's all. What you can do as a matter of course, I still can't. I just want you to know that.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] Every time I speak up for marriage equality, ugly words fly.

"Disgusting." "Get out of Japan."
"You produce nothing of value."

These are thrown at people who simply
want to marry the one they love.

Without a thought for how deeply those words cut.

They keep saying them, never imagining the harm.
This isn't an opinion. It's plain discrimination.

To hurl words that wound, without shame —
as a fellow Japanese, that is what shames me.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] In the country without marriage equality: its legislature.

Five of six high courts called it unconstitutional.
Even the one that didn't, gave a warning.

"Left unchanged, it will become unconstitutional."

The courts are clearly urging lawmakers to act.
Yet the Diet won't move, year after year.

Soon, the Supreme Court will rule on it.

A ruling against it is now highly likely.
Before it comes, the Diet should act itself.

And still, the ruling party won't move — the nation's shame.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] Another question for those who oppose same-sex marriage: can you name even one country that descended into "social chaos" after legalizing it? It's real in 38 countries. If no one can name one, isn't your anxiety just imagination?

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] To those who oppose same-sex marriage with "the tax burden" or "they can't have children." That's all true of opposite-sex marriage too. Couples who choose not to have kids also get deductions and create a "tax burden." So what's the rational basis for excluding only same-sex couples? In the end, you're just saying "no, because they're same-sex."

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] One question for those who oppose same-sex marriage: if same-sex couples marry, what concrete harm does it do to you? Not one person has ever given a real answer. If no one is harmed, isn't opposing it simply discrimination?

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

Let me make one thing perfectly clear.

I am not ashamed of Japan itself,
nor its people, nor its culture.

The only shame is the law that denies us marriage equality.

It is because I love this country
that I truly want it to change.

I want a Japan the world can admire.
And that, in the end, is all I ask.

[Minaduchi @minaduchi_jp]

[Japan] "Don't air Japan's shame to the world."
That's what opponents of marriage equality tell me.

But they are gravely mistaken.

I don't need to say a word. The world already knows
that Japan is the only G7 nation without marriage equality.

The shame is not mine, but theirs — those who refuse it.

There is only one way to erase it.
Not by silencing me, but by legalizing marriage equality.

Until that day, I will keep telling the world, calmly.
The world is waiting for Japan to change.