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1:54 pm - 07/19/2012

Video: Being Gay in Japan

A JET ALT in southern Japan has made this interesting video about being gay in Japan:




Highlights of the interview include:

- Most gay people in Japan are in hiding.

- They don't want to openly come out as gay.

- Gay men just get married and have children living a double life rather than coming out as gay.

- Gay people can get discriminated on and get fired for being gay.

- Transgender =/= gay.

- As a gay man, he doesn't want to live in Japan.  He has moved to Sydney, Australia where gay can live openly.


Near the end of the interview, he speaks out to Japanese youth, offering hope and guidance. At the end of the piece, there’s a link to “It Gets Better-Japan” website, which features Japanese explanations and introductions to the western phenomenon created by Dan Savage‘s “It Gets Better” Project, which features gay and straight celebrities positively speaking out to youth, urging them that “It Gets Better.”



Source: japanprobe

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horripilating 19th-Jul-2012 10:18 pm (UTC)
the international community doesn't typically associate japan with homophobia because (at least to my knowledge) there aren't a lot of violent gay-bashings, but that doesn't mean homosexuality is socially accepted. this video is very much in line with what i saw when i lived in japan: homosexuality is seen as a joke, not a viable way of life.
45s 20th-Jul-2012 12:22 am (UTC)
yeppppppppp. and it's annoying explaining this to people who only know of japan through like, manga and anime. hahaha.

matsuko deluxe is trans* and identifies as a woman yet they poke jokes at her and occasionally misgender her (ugh)
takarai_karin 20th-Jul-2012 10:15 am (UTC)
Really? I thought Matsuko identified as a man? They said that's how they live their personal life, and that they don't crossdress IRL. Am I understanding this wrong, then?
45s 20th-Jul-2012 02:10 pm (UTC)
i've heard her id as a woman? can anyone clarify?
thefortysecond 21st-Jul-2012 06:48 am (UTC)
Pretty sure I've heard him refer to himself as male, and state specifically in interviews that he identifies as a gay man. I can't remember specific sources, though.

Circumstantial evidence, but Haruna Ai is generally not misgendered even though she gets her (un)fair share of jokes (I don't want to minimize what she goes through!!!), so I'd assume that if most of the time Matsuko is referred to as male, it's probably because he wants to be.
very_pinku 20th-Jul-2012 02:41 am (UTC)
Yeah, I watch these gaming videos and when a gay guy started appearing,
the person who was making the video made being gay sound like a joke and something 'gross'.
The other commenters thought that being gay was a joke and it made me sad.
What if the person watching was gay? How would they feel if they were being made fun of?


nova_usagi 22nd-Jul-2012 03:55 pm (UTC)
More or less that`s how it seems here.
glider 19th-Jul-2012 10:23 pm (UTC)
this was sad.
wakiwaki 19th-Jul-2012 10:38 pm (UTC)
reminds me of something that happened to me (tl;dr stuff): one of my best friends, who is japanese, came to visit me in my country. so we went out with some friends, two of whom just so happen to be gay and a couple; not to mention one of them is very, very flamboyant and, well, stereotypically gay, if i may say so. so yada yada, it's all fun and we're getting along until the boys kiss and i see her just STARING wide-eyed. and she says "so, they're really gay? really? wow, i thought you were joking! wow.. ". something so simple and yet she seemed so amazed by it :/ it wasn't a negative reaction by any means and she's great friends with both boys, but it just shows how japanese people pretty much think that gay = a joke, just for fun, ~those okamas on telly.
wapiko 19th-Jul-2012 10:41 pm (UTC)
10 and a half minutes seems very daunting to me right now, so I'll watch this video later (thanks for the highlights)!

but I will say that most of the japanese girls who have come over here to my school have all been extremely accepting. whenever they found out one of my male friends was gay they would be completely fascinated by him.

I even came out to a handful of my closest friends when I was in Japan and they were all supportive. Then again, I think they were used to it because in my international dorm (which is closely linked to the school I went to) 15 of us identified as LGBTQ(ueer) out of the 60 living there. XD
koichiko 19th-Jul-2012 10:42 pm (UTC)
Thank you so much for posting this.
It was actually very sad to watch. I'm always stunned by how uneducated japanese people are about sexuality and gender-identity. I mean, it has been discussed a lot of times here before, the fact that transgendered people are always identified as "gay" in Japan as if there's no difference.

I so hope that some day soon Japan will start being more open and finally get themselves more educated about this topic. Not talking about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist and people are suffering because of this ignorance.
chibi_hime 19th-Jul-2012 10:49 pm (UTC)
Very interesting and very sad. I can see why my gay Japanese friends feel more comfortable with foreigners.
setsuna16 20th-Jul-2012 01:42 am (UTC)
That's sad. And it gives me insight. I think it was two Disneyland trips ago, I saw two Japanese guys that SEEMED like they were together, and they had a kid. And it made me pretty happy because I figured that whatever it was that they had to go through to have that life wasn't easy, and more power to them.

Then a woman (or maybe two, I only remember one) came and was obviously with one of the guys. So I thought I was wrong in my assumption.

Now I'm not so sure.
dramaticsurgeon 20th-Jul-2012 01:54 am (UTC)
For some reason I'm reminded of the 1950s "Boys Beware" propaganda video in the US that was supposed to warn young boys about "The Homosexual" like it was a disease. The film was rife with ignorance and claims that had no scientific support, but people believed it because it was a "documentary" from a local police department. Instead, they needed real documentaries like this so viewers could truly understand the difficulties the LGBT community face in each country.

I wonder how many people in Japan believe homosexuality/transgender identity is a sickness simply because they've been told it is. Their political climate is changing, but the media still sadly pigeonholes transgender and homosexual people into very specific categories.

Edited at 2012-07-20 01:58 am (UTC)
squallina 20th-Jul-2012 02:28 am (UTC)
:(

People should be allowed to be whoever they want to be without it being a source of disgust or attention. It's just another way of excluding those who are "different" and proving how much better you are for being normal. TBQH it's the deliberately "normal" people who I find disgusting, not the other way round.
takarai_karin 20th-Jul-2012 10:24 am (UTC)
TBQH it's the deliberately "normal" people who I find disgusting, not the other way round

I don't identify as straight, but how can a person be more or less disgusting just because who they're attracted to are in line with the majority? As long as they don't actively try to demonized the minority, I don't see how piling misplaced disgust with more misplaced disgust can improve situation.

Allies are appreciated by us minorities, as long as they don't try to make it all about ~them and their plight as allies~ and ~what good allies~ they are.
squallina 20th-Jul-2012 11:19 am (UTC)
This is why I added the deliberately in front of normal - I meant it as in they make a point of being "normal". I don't think there's such a thing as normal and I'm not saying anyone's disgusting except for the people who have to find some shallow reason to exclude other people. And I do agree; us minorities do appreciate allies, which is why I smh at people who call us disgusting or say we need to be fixed.
brucelynn 20th-Jul-2012 03:59 am (UTC)
I don't know if I can watch this video

It sounds too sad and I'm already annoyed with all of the bullshit happening in my country as far as homosexuals are concerned.

I feel really sad for gay people who have to deal with this bullshit , I don't see why people feel the need to try and run other people's lives.
cleotine 20th-Jul-2012 07:36 am (UTC)
This is so sad and frustrating and exasperating...
And my travel guides tell me how great a country Japan is for the gay traveller since homosexuals are sooooo accepted.
tousan_yamete 20th-Jul-2012 03:02 pm (UTC)
it isnt a bad country by any means. you won't get brokeback mountain'd or anything.
cleotine 20th-Jul-2012 10:47 pm (UTC)
I absolutely wasn't going to insinuate that in Japan homosexuals are being harmed and/or assaulted on a regular basis.
I was trying to say that (for me at least) as a country that is praised as an ideal place for homsexual travellers to go to, it should not treat being gay as a joke or s.th abnormal. There may be lots and lots of places in Japan where you can openly live as gay/lesbian/transgender/whatever you want. I just think that something is fundamentaly wrong if in the public eye everyone who is not "straight" is treated like there is s.th wrong with him.
You shouldn't be accepted as LGBT just because you are a foreigner and therefore different rules apply. For me, an ideal place to go to would be a place where everyone can choose who to love and no one gives a care because it's simply not their business.
I think in that respect Japan still has to learn (along with other countries).
kushina 20th-Jul-2012 12:13 pm (UTC)
:( Broke my heart a little...
mjspice 20th-Jul-2012 12:35 pm (UTC)
Wow...this is just so sad....
clara_maria 20th-Jul-2012 03:00 pm (UTC)
god damn sad
I have a good male japanese friends who is living in my country - he's not sure about his sexuality and I'm pretty sure that kind of social "treatment" is the main reason for it
FIGHT! everybody has the right to be happy the way they are!
booboobooboo99 21st-Jul-2012 03:53 pm (UTC)
I have no words for this.
Just this noise:

"Awwwwwwwww..."
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