News
Tokyo Pride Parade Postponed till Next May- 13 May 2008
 Tokyo Pride Parade, expected in August this year, has been postponed until next May, Tokyo Pride Parade organizers announced on their website on the first of this month.
The Parade has been held on the second Saturday every August. Last year, over 4,000 LGBT people and their supporters gathered at the Yoyogi Park Outdoor Stage in a mix of colorful consumes and marched.
Last month, the Parade organizers released the next parade’s theme, “Festival - Our message! Diversity is Our Strength!-” and completed contracting with sponsors.
However, the organizers decided to put off the parade till next year because “a board of directors and an executive committee were divided about management and the organizational structure.” This division of opinion had “brought delays of the preparation for the parade and resignations of three members of the committee and one board member”, the organizers revealed in their statement.
Many of the sponsors and those who were planning to participate in the parade are surprised about the postponement.
One of the organizers who withheld his name by request told GayJapanNews that a board of directors and an executive committee were often in a state of confrontation and that some organizers were complaining about the hierarchy of the organization.
“If the board had explained that an executive committee would be expected thoroughly to carry out the board’s decision when they recruited executives, we could’ve avoided this decision” he added.
The postponed parade will be held on May 23, 2009. (Editors Tom Paine, Azusa Yamashita)
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