Can Soft Law Improve the Welfare of Sexual Minorities? The Case of Same-sex Partnership Policy in Japan

Soft law, defined as a set of not legally binding rules, can play a potentially important role in protecting minorities, but it remains empirically unknown whether and how such law works. This study examines how the introduction of soft law affects the welfare of sexual minorities in the context of Japan, where an increasing number of municipalities have adopted a non-binding policy that officially recognizes same-sex relationships (“Same-sex partnership policy”). Using a difference-in-differences and an event study analysis that exploits the variations in the timing of adoption, I find that the same-sex partnership policy reduces the suicide rate of the general population by 5%. I then show that the partnership policy promotes a greater awareness of sexual minorities among residents. Google search data reveal that the number of searches for the word “LGBT” increases after the introduction of the partnership policy, while that for discriminatory words for sexual minorities decreases. Furthermore, original survey data shows the level of subjective happiness of sexual minorities became higher after their municipalities introduced the partnership policy. The survey analysis also suggests that cisgender heterosexuals from the municipalities with the partnership policy became more tolerant toward sexual minorities. Finally, all of these effects are more prominent in the more liberal municipalities. These results altogether imply that soft law can improve the welfare of sexual minorities by increasing the social awareness and acceptance of sexual minorities, especially where people are more likely to accept the new norms proposed by laws.