To get a local council here to grant symbolic recognition to same-sex couples, the main pitch wasn’t about civil rights but about sharpening the ward’s cutting-edge image at home and abroad.
“We need to be on par with London, New York and San Francisco as a cultural center,” said Ken Hasebe, who pushed the issue for three years as an assembly member in Tokyo’s Shibuya district.
His success this spring in passing the ordinance—the first of its kind in Japan—illustrates how changes under way in the West are having ripple effects elsewhere, even in deeply conservative countries like Japan.
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