Tokyo's Setagaya Ward has said it may follow Shibuya's lead in recognizing long-term same-sex couples, days after the neighboring district announced a vote on the matter.
Mayor Nobuto Hosaka of Setagaya, Tokyo's most populous ward, said Shibuya's move to consider declaring such relationships as "equivalent to marriage" was a precedent which prompted Setagaya to examine what it can do to aid its own residents.
His words were seen as a further blossoming of municipal understanding of the needs of sexual minorities.