The City of Osaka, Japan on Wednesday became the first city [official website] in the country to recognize same-sex couples as foster parents. The city government officially certified two men as foster parents of a teenage boy who has been under their care since February [Japan Times report]. The couple first consulted the Osaka City child consultation center in the fall of 2015 about adopting the said teenager [Japan Today report]. Following that, they attended lectures, training, and reviews, as well as screenings by the city’s social welfare panel and was certified to take charge of a child under 18 on December 22, 2016. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry commented that there was no precedent of this event before. Japan has no legal provision excluding same-sex couples from being foster parents.

Same-sex marriage continues to be a hotly debated issue, both in the US and abroad. Last December, a legislative committee in the Taiwan Parliament approved a bill that would amend the Taiwan Civil Code to allow same-sex marriage [JURIST report]. The Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee approved a change in the Code from “male and female parties” into “two parties,” which would allow homosexual couples to be legally wed. In September tens of thousands of people marched [JURIST report] in Mexico in protest of same-sex marriage, a controversial topic in the country further exacerbated by a proposal from embattled President Enrique Peña Nieto to recognize same-sex marriage. Last March 2015, a Tokyo district assembly became the first municipality in Japan to recognize same-sex partnerships [JURIST report].