In Historic First, Japan Grants LGBTQ Woman Refugee Status
A Japanese court granted a Ugandan LGBTQ woman refugee status in a decision experts say could make things easier for all refugees.
3 min readMar 18, 2023
By Jay Allen
In a first in Japan, a court in Osaka has granted an LGBTQ woman refugee status over fears of prosecution in her homeland for her sexuality.
“I’ve been shaking since I got here”
Uganda outlawed same-sex relationships in 2014 and continues to prosecute “offenders” to this day. Violent attacks against LGBTQ people are commonplace and abetted by authorities.
The plaintiff says authorities arrested, held and tortured for three months because she’s a lesbian. After her release, she fled to Japan, where she filed for asylum in February 2020.
However, the Immigration Services Agency of Japan rejected her appeal, not once, but twice. She appealed the decision in court, telling a judge that she “couldn’t live” in Uganda.
