I. Introduction
In Japan according to the survey by Dentsu-Lab in 2015, 7.6% of people are LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender). This percentage is almost same as that of people who are left-handed or whose blood type is AB, and has been increasing since 2012. However LGBT rights are not guaranteed enough in Japan and many people have some negative image of LGBT people, I think. In this report I would like to explain what LGBT means, the problems LGBT communities are facing and introduce organizations supporting LGBT people, and think what we should do to understand and support LGBT people focusing on the educational interface.
II. What Does LGBT Mean?
The word “LGBT” means lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. Sexuality can be explained by “physical sex”, “mental sex” but sexuality exists gradationally so cannot be decided. Of course there are some other types of sexuality like Intersex (people whose physical sex can't be classified as male or female), Asexual (people who don't love with anyone), Pansexual (people who love with any gender including LGBT) and so on. Because of that some people use “LBGT” as the general term for all these sexual minorities. In this report I would like to use the word “LGBT” including other sexual minorities.
Now it is said that LGBT people account for 7.6 percent of population in Japan. This means 1 in 13 people is LGBT. This percentage increased by 2.4 percent compared with the survey in 2012. It can be considered that people who had uncomfortable feelings about their sexuality found that they are LGBT by starting the system of same-sex partnership in Shibuya-ku and Setagaya-ku or coming out by people who have social influence. It seems that this number will increase more.
III. Problems LGBT People have in the Educational Interface
Most LGBT people start having uncomfortable feelings about their sexuality before graduating from elementary school. I would like to explain the troubles LGBT students have at school, classifying them into 3 types.
a) Things divided by gender on the family register
Toilet, changing clothes, uniform, medical examination, title (さん/君), first-person pronoun (僕/私/俺), personal belongings color…
b) Things premised on social gender or heterosexuality
Moral education, sex education, life plan, academic and career counseling, taking about love...
c) Outing
If LGBT people come out to their friends or teacher or others and the person talks other person without permission, it is “outing”.
If 7.6 percent of people are LGBT, this means that, on average, 3 students in a class are LGBT. However there are few people who recognize that and even if they recognize that, people tend to have some negative images of LGBT people and sometimes bully them. Indeed some surveys show that about 70 percent of LGBT people have experienced bullying or violence at school and 30 percent have thought about committing suicide. This is serious problem.
One of the big causes of these negative attitudes and bullying is that education is premised on heterosexuality and opportunity to know about sexual diversity or minorities at school is not enough, I think. According to a questionnaire for gay and bisexual men, to the question “Have you learned any information about homosexuality at school?”, 76.1 percent answered that they have never learned about this, 4.1 percent said they have learned that it's abnormal and 10.2 percent said they learned negative information. The percentage of people who learned positive information is only 6.5 percent. Not only students but also teachers lack proper knowledge. According to a survey of 6,000 teachers, about 70% of them think they need to teach about gender identity disorder in the class and 60% think so about homosexuality in the class. However, the percentage of teachers who actually took a class about that is only 14%. As reasons for not teaching about it, the other teachers said they have never felt it necessary to teach this, don't know well about it, or want to teach it but feel it is too difficult.
I heard stories from the staff of ReBit, Shimazu-san and Yamamoto-san about this issues. (The details of my visit to ReBit will be described later). When both of them went for teaching practice, they wanted to teach a class about sexual diversity and sexual minorities. However, at junior high school, Shimazu-san was told that it is too early to teach and at high school, Yamamoto-san was stopped because other teachers felt it wqas too difficult. In Japan sex education is considered as taboo and because of that teaches don't want to take classes about sexuality and they don't know how to teach it. As a result, LGBT students are treated as if they don't exist and education premised on heterosexuality is carried out. It is necessary for everyone to have proper knowledge.
IV. Organizations Supporting LGBT Communities
In this section I will introduce a organization and a campaign supporting LGBT people.
A. ReBit
The name ReBit means “少しずつ(Bit)を何度でも(Re)繰り返す” and this contains a wish for society to take a step forward. They aim to turn the society into one in which all children including those who are LGBT can grow-up into adults being themselves (LGBTを含めた全ての子どもが、ありのままの自分でオトナになれる社会を目指す). To achieve this aim, they have three main projects: LGBT education, LGBT成人式 (Coming of Age ceremony), and LGBT job-hunting. In LGBT education, they give lessons about LGBT at schools, boards of education or local government for both teachers and students. In the lessons they give various information about LGBT from basic information to life histories of LGBT当事者. They also teach how to become an “ally”.“Ally” means straight people who want to understand the situation of LGBT people and reduce prejudice against LGBT communities. Allies can sometimes support mental of LGBT people.
B. 教科書にLGBTを！ネットワーク [(Network to include LGBT People in School Texbooks)
“教科書にLGBTを！ネットワーク” is a campaign started by Muroi Maika-san who is LGBT. When she was in junior high school, she fell in love with another girl. However, when she read textbook in the health class, she felt alienated because the textbook said "Everyone develops an interest in the opposite sex during puberty (思春期になると誰もが異性への関心が高まるようになります). And then because of this experience, she started the campaign trying to make the textbook which doesn't ignore LGBT minorities 2 years ago. In 2016, Japanese Curriculum Guidelines will be revised so MEXT asked people's opinion by public comment. She requested people to send comments about sexual diversity and indeed 368 comments about that were sent and it accounts for 12 percent of all. It is expected that LGBT people will now be included in textbooks.
V. Opinion
Through my research in this year, I thought it is necessary to spread the recognition of “ally”. Now in Japan the image of LGBT people is relatively not good and some people have prejudices. So at first all people should have proper knowledge. If they do, Japan would be more comfortable place for LGBT people to live.
I also researched same-sex marriage this year. About this, there are some issues of constitution but if people understand and accept LGBT people, it would be easy that the system like Shibuya-ku and Setagaya-ku or at education will be prepared in all Japan, I think. To achieve that, organizations and campaigns like the ones I introduced are very important.