On Sunday, June 12, 2022, the Miyagi Nijiro Parade was held in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tohoku region. Although it rained in the morning, it miraculously stopped just before the parade, and about 150 participants marched through the city’s main streets. The post-parade Pride rally was very moving, with speeches by committee members, organizers of other parades around the city, and members of the Deaf LGBTQ organization. It was a great parade with lots of rainbow colors and the warmth of Sendai’s LGBTQ community.

In 2014, the first Pride Parade in Tohoku began in Aomori City. In the beginning, only three people walked in front of the station, but every year the number of walkers doubled, and by the fourth year, 100 people from all over Japan had gathered to share the slogan, “I want to make my hometown a place I can return to. Last September, Shoko Usami, the founder of the parade, passed away from cancer. She and her partner Miho Okada were the first in Japan to officially register their marriage at city hall in 2014, appealing to society for the right to marry, but Shoko was unable to see her same-sex marriage realized. And so, on June 5 of this year, the Aomori Rainbow Parade was held on a sunny day, with people from all over Japan gathering to remember Shoko, and the governor of the prefecture offering his congratulations. It was a parade that gave us a sense of pride and courage to walk forward with our friends, even if our feet are in the mud.

On May 21, 2022, a Pride Parade was held in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, for the first time in four years. The Iwate Rainbow March was first held in 2018, but was unavoidably canceled in 2019 due to the approach of a record-breaking typhoon, and in 2020 and 2021 it could not be held due to the Covid-19 disaster… After overcoming such bad luck, this year, in the refreshing weather of May, the parade was held in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture. About 120 people marched around the elegant Morioka Castle Ruins and through the city’s shopping streets.


In front of the station, the “LUSH” store was decorated with rainbow flags, and the prefectural symbol “Aiina Iwate Residents Information Exchange Center” also shined in rainbow colors, making for a wonderful sight to behold.

Akita Pride March, which was announced to be held in May 2020 for the first time, was cancelled in both 2020 and 2021 due to the Corona Division, but this year, like a budding butterfly in spring after enduring a long winter, the event was finally realized. On May 28, about 100 participants started from in front of Akita Station, went to the park where the castle of the local lord used to be located, and paraded through the main street again to the station square.
In the morning, activist and trans woman Tomato Hatano, head of TransGenderJapan, gave a lecture on the history of PRIDE.

https://en.urabandairainbow.com/

Sendai’s first LGBT Pride Festival will be held on September 16, 2019.
The weather of autumn season in Sendai area is very fine.
Let’s enjoy the stage events with famous artists from Sendai and a “PRIDE PARADE” where everyone can participate.
Active body make trainer RENA & HIDE (from Miyagi – Tohoku, Japan) will be on the stage!!
https://sendaipridejapan.wixsite.com/spj2019