First Gay Candidate Runs in Japan

Kanako Otsuji, Japan's first openly gay politician, is to run in July's national elections in what she says is a challenge to official ignorance of the country's "hidden" minority groups.

Officials yesterday confirmed that the Democratic party, Japan's largest opposition party, had endorsed Ms Otsuji, 32, to run in the July 22 election for the upper house of parliament.

In 2003 Ms Otsuji, running as an independent, became the youngest ever candidate to win a seat on the Osaka prefectural assembly at the age of 28, one of only seven women on the 110-seat legislature.

She successfully campaigned to change a local law to allow same-sex couples to rent public housing in Osaka, which had previously been available only to married couples. Same-sex unions are not recognized by Japanese law.

Midway through her four-year term Ms Otsuji decided to go public about her sexual orientation with the publication of her autobiography, Coming Out: A Journey to Find Myself. Though she did not attempt to hide her sexual orientation during the Osaka election campaign, her aides persuaded her not to mention it for fear that it would drive away voters.

Ms Otsuji said prime minister Shinzo Abe's vision of a "Beautiful Japan" ignored the diversity of Japanese society. "There is a tendency to put forward one set of values," she said. "But the reality is becoming more diverse. Japanese society is not engaging with the wide range of people living in diverse ways, in terms of nationality, race, sex, age and disabilities."