(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Rahm Emanuel, the current U.S. ambassador to Japan and former chief of staff for President Barack Obama, took criticism from conservative Japanese politicians and citizens as he continued to insert himself in the country’s politics, particularly in regards to LGBT activism.
According to Breitbart, Japanese legislators were on the brink of presenting a bill that would legalize same-sex unions. Lawmakers reviewed the first draft before the G7 summit in Hiroshima on Friday.
Polls indicate that the majority of the Japanese support homosexual unions; however, the country has yet to legalize the practice.
Officials discussed the bill as a way to “foster understanding of sexual minorities,” but generated a fair amount of controversy as the bill would keep men who identify as women out of sensitive women’s spaces such as bathrooms and public baths.
Emanuel pushed for Japan to adopt left-wing America’s notions of gender ideology outright, and become a “clear, unambiguous voice not only for tolerance but against discrimination.”
He also said he has “full confidence” in conservative Prime Minister Kishida Fumio to push the bill through.
Emanuel hopped into debates on the bill and pressured legislators by posting a video about it on his Twitter page.
“He shouldn’t interfere in Japan’s domestic affairs, especially with the legislation that is not even passed in his own country. What gives him the right to control us? Is he trying to culturally colonize us?” Japanese conservative commentator Yoko Ishii said.
“Many of us Japanese are already sick and tired of the interference in domestic affairs by Ambassador Emanuel. This is making us distrust the U.S… I don’t understand how he doesn’t see what he’s causing as a result of his stubborn ideology and ego.”
Ishii, along with other Japanese conservatives, continued to criticize Emanuel for interfering in the country’s internal affairs, despite their appreciation for the alliance.
A profile in the Washington Post described Emanuel as an “unusually hands-on, visible and outspoken American ambassador.” The article admitted that he “has his hands in seemingly every issue, including tasks that typically wouldn’t involve an ambassador.”
