A YEAR OF SPRINGS is a work of fiction, but the laws mentioned are still the current situation at the time of this comment (so same-sex marriage is still not legal in japan, trans people still can't change their gender legally without going through the medical procedures specified in the law, &c.).
things are slowly changing for the better - for example, tokyo recently announced it will start recognising same-sex unions - but there is still a lot of room to improve.