Same-sex couples say hotels make excuses to turn them away despite 2018 law change

In May this year, at the height of the coronavirus’s first wave, two gay men living together in Amagasaki, western Japan, thought they would ease the boredom of the country’s soft lockdown with a visit to a love hotel, where couples pay for short stays to have sex.

But rather than the carefree time they had anticipated, the couple, in their mid-30s, did not even get as far as the door to their room.