By NICHOLAS KLEINENBERG Japanese gay dormitories will be closed by the end of the month in response to a student uprising, the government said on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Education Ministry said the dormitory at Chiba University in Tokyo would be closed after the end for the year.
The dormitory is located in a former psychiatric hospital and was set up in 1997.
In April, students protested after a group of about 60 students who identified as gay were asked to leave the building.
The students’ movement was sparked by the government’s decision to ban gay people from joining the military, which had been banned by Japan’s Supreme Court in June.
“It’s a tough decision, but it is a necessary one,” Education Minister Shinsuke Sekiguchi said of the decision to close the dormitory.
Sekiguchi, who is gay, said the government has been trying to find a solution to the problem for a long time.
According to an article in the local newspaper, the dorm has no beds, but a common room has an indoor toilet.
Chiba University has about 30 students and is run by the university’s gay community.
About two-thirds of Chiba’s 5,200 students are male, according to the government.
At least five student leaders have been arrested for protesting the ban on gay people joining the army.
Last week, the Japanese government asked a U.S.-based group, the Human Rights Campaign, to investigate the issue.
The group has not yet received the results of its investigation.