The city of Osaka, Japan has become the first municipality in the country to recognize a same-sex couple as foster parents.
The Japan Times reports that the couple are two men, who have been caring for a teenage boy since February. After undergoing training and screening (which I assume are normal for all potential foster parents), the two had been given approval last December to foster.
The paper also notes that two women in the Kanto region, which includes the greater Tokyo area, had previously been recognized as eligible to foster parent, and then raised a child. It’s unclear if they didn’t get the same official approval for this as the two men in Tokyo, or if the uniqueness of the Tokyo couple is that they did so within a municipality.
While Tokyo has recognized same-sex relationships as equal to marriage since the end of 2015, parental rights throughout the country are another matter. As Dr. Guy Ringler of California Fertility Partners wrote at the Advocate a year ago, “Policies forbid Japan-based fertility doctors like myself from working with anyone but a straight couple, leaving same-sex couples (and straight or LGBT singles) unable to seek family-building assistance in the country. While some lesbians have found ways to give birth to their own children, for gay men, having children wasn’t just difficult, it was not even considered by male couples.” Surrogacy is banned.
Many LGBTQ people in Japan are nevertheless interested in becoming parents, as Ringler discusses—and many are already finding ways to do so, as another Japan Times article details at length. May this week’s news be only one of many steps in the right direction.