Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the fear of forced outings has increased in Japan. The governor of Mie Prefecture has now announced that he will ban the outing of people against their will.<\/p>\n
In order to contain the outbreak of the new respiratory disease COVID-19, Japanese health authorities, like everywhere else in the world, have started to track down Corona virus patients and ask them how they got infected.<\/p>\n
The fear of being involuntarily outed has since increased greatly among Japan’s homosexuals. In some cases, people are reluctant to go to medical institutions to be tested because they are afraid of outings and discrimination.<\/p>\n
Eikei Suzuki, governor of Mie Prefecture – a region on the main Japanese island Honsh\u016b with a population of around 1.8 million – wants to put an end to this intolerable state of affairs. At the prefectural assembly on 3 June, he therefore announced a general ban on forced outings.<\/p>\n
The ban, which according to Japan Today is part of a more comprehensive anti-discrimination law, prohibits third parties from disclosing the sexual orientation or gender identity of a person or forcing that person to publicly out themselves.<\/p>\n
Suzuki explained that an outing “can destabilise family and work relationships and drive people into isolation by disrupting friendships and contact with others,” referring to a case in 2015 in which a doctoral student at Hitotsubashi University was exposed to a homophobic classmate and committed suicide.<\/p>\n