Seven years after Tokyo’s Shibuya district first introduced same-sex partnership recognition in 2015, more than 200 smaller towns have joined the move, accounting for less than one-fifth of Japanese municipalities.The certificates are not legally binding but allow same-sex partners to apply for public housing like married couples, give them access to medical data and allow them to be beneficiaries in auto and life insurance.Support for sexual diversity has grown slowly in Japan, and legal protections are still lacking for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.Her partner, Yoriko, who uses only her first name, also welcomed the certificate, saying it “publicly recognizes our relationship for the first time after we have lived together for more than 10 years.”Same-sex couples are often barred from jointly renting apartments, visiting each other in the hospital and other services available to married couples.Campaigns for equal rights for sexual minorities, including same-sex marriage, have faced resistance from conservatives in Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s governing party who oppose more inclusivity for sexual minorities, calling them “unproductive.”Satoko Nagamura and Mamiko Moda, a same-sex couple, are raising their 11-year-old son Ittan, who was given birth by Nagamura by sperm donation."