Medusa, thank you so much for your informative post. It's like reading a very well-written article and I've learned a lot, just as much as I did from many other posts of yours. I really appreciate your time and efforts.
I think that it's nice that these countries are making a lot of advancements in the areas of civil rights and public awareness.
I think that Japan is really behind at the political arena.
At the socio-cultural level, homosexuality in Japan has not been considered to be sinful, or criminal (except for 7 or 8 years in late the 19c as I mentioned in my previous post), and accepted as a part of (sub-)culture(s) in the pre-modern history.
Indeed, important social institutions in pre-modern history -- ruling classes (e.g., aristocratic class; upper-class Samurais) and religious institution (e.g., monasteries) --- were known for practicing it.
Some also argue that homosexual mentality is very strongly embedded in the modern Japanese socio-cultural climate as well. For example, a lot of scholars have pointed out that one of the most popular modern literary works, "Kokoro" (1914) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokoro by Natsume Soseki, can be read as a homosexual literature (BTW, the author is one of the most beloved writers in the country that his pic is on the 1,000 yen note). It is basically a story about a triangular relationship between two men and one woman. One man who loses in this rivalry commits a suicide. The other man suffers throughout his life without telling the truth to his wife and commits a suicide after passing this secret onto a young man who dearly adores him. Some argue that that woman is completely excluded from these relationships. As I think of it, these prototypes (i.e., enhancing the bond between two men through one woman; the age-structured relationship between two men) are recurrent themes that I could see in many Japanese literary works. But I think that these were so culturally embedded that it would be hard to notice if you were raised within that culture. I heard that the age-structured male-male relationship was from China; but I just do not know the Chinese culture.
Despite these homosexuality-friendly backgrounds, however, the contemporary Japanese society is not politically progressive in assuring rights for sexual minorities. I do not think that there are many political groups that are strongly against them. But sexual minorities do not have much political power in Japan. I wonder if the unfortunate institutional discrimination somehow eventually contributed to the more organized LGBT movements in Western countries. I do not think that the kinds of statistics that you provided are available in Japan because the same-sex marriage is not really recognized as an important political agenda yet. But I think that they would eventually "import" those political movements from the West in future.
I also think that there would be more open LGBTs in the US than in Japan despite the greater homophobia climate in the US. My personal impression on this matter is that Japan is a society that tends to marginalize minorities of any kinds. I think that there’s some cultural atmosphere that makes you to be hesitant to claim that you are different from others.
Thank you very much Ant for your detailed response. I really appreciate it. Your post made me think a lot. I'd like to write more later. But I'd just like to thank you first.
Ant - thank you for your last post.
Tonichelle, I apologize again if my not-well-thought-out first post might have given you any impression that I was equating Christianity with anti-homosexuality, which is not my intention. I know that there are diverse beliefs and opinions among different Christian groups/individuals on this matter. I also agree with Ant that people who are genuinely religious would try to practice loving kindness and tolerance/forgiveness than reproaching religious sin in others.
The complete official voter information for proposition 8 can be seen at: 
