Sixty-four percent of respondents to a Kyodo News poll believe same-sex marriage should be recognized in Japan, with the findings coming amid growing criticism of the government's conservative stance toward LGBT issues.
In the telephone survey, conducted over a three-day period from Saturday, 88 percent also said recent remarks hostile to LGBT people by a former executive secretary to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were inappropriate.
Earlier this month, Masayoshi Arai, an elite bureaucrat, was sacked after saying during an off-the-record conversation with reporters that he would "not want to live next door" to an LGBT couple and that he does "not even want to look at" LGBT people.
