Taiga Ishikawa (pictured) has an uphill battle in his bid to become Japan's only openly gay member of parliament, but hopes his campaign for tomorrow's general election will raise awareness in a nation where gay rights hardly get a nod in the mainstream political agenda.
Ishikawa is keen for his candidacy, which has attracted considerable attention on the internet, to help others in Japan's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community come out of the closet.
"It is said that 3 to 5 per cent of the population in Japan is LGBT. I would like to think that these people could use their vote to tell the nation that they exist," Ishikawa said.
Apart from lesbian Kanako Otsuji, who briefly filled a vacancy in the upper house in 2013 after the incumbent died, Japan has had no openly gay lawmakers at the national level.
Ishikawa, 40, is running in a Tokyo district from the tiny opposition Social Democratic Party in a lower house poll that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition is expected to win hands down.
The author of a popular book, , that described his feelings of isolation from mainstream society, Ishikawa got his start in politics as an aide to the then-leader of the Social Democratic Party. Many members of the LGBT community face discrimination in schools, workplaces and homes.
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