Homosexuality: The Past & Present JapanReturn to Essay List

Male homosexuality in Japan has long been associated with prostitution and transgender performance in the noh and kabuki theaters. That open acceptance continues in today’s entertainment arena, which may be influencing people’s perception of sexual minorities.

One of the first gay celebrities in Japan was Miwa Akihiro, who has led an active career as singer, actor, and author since 1950’s to this day. According to the Wikipedia, “Miwa Akihiro, a drag queen and former lover of author Mishima Yukio (1925-70), is the television advertisement spokesperson for many Japanese companies ranging from beauty to financial products and TEPCO.”

Miwa Akihiro
Photo from www.o-miwa.co.jp

Transvestite singer, dancer and actor Peter (1952-) has been popular since 1960’s and he played the role of Kyōami, clown and page boy to the lord, in Kurosawa Akira’s movie “Ran.”

Peter
Photo from http://www.actorspro.com/actpro/mens/images/peter_L.jpg

In 1979 Ootsuka Takashi put on a performance about what it meant to be gei or “gay.” According to McLelland, Ootsuka was approached by Kuwahara Moichi, the producer of TBS radio’s culturally radical Snake Man Show (“Queer” 172). Ootsuka appeared on the show every Wednesday for 18 months and had his famous opening line, “How are all you gays doing out there?” This helped open up the doors for many of the current transgender, transsexual, gays, lesbians, and bisexuals to be introduced to pop culture, which led to the “gay boom” in Japanese media in the early 1990’s. The “gay boom” saw a rapid escalation in the amount of attention given to minority sexuality issues in the press, on television and in movies. Well-known figures like Osugi and Piko, Kaba-chan, Mikawa Ken’ichi, MaeKen or Maeda Ken, Nakamura Ataru, and Kariyazaki Shōgo, to name a few, have been around in the entertainment business for some time.

From left to right: Kaba-chan, Maeda Ken, and Kariyazaki Shōgo

The media seems to accept these celebrities from comedians to singers with an open arm. The media portrays many of the homosexual community with lots of jokes but they don’t go as far as humiliating them. A good example would be HG, also known as Haado Gei. He is a character who poses as a gay man and does random acts around Japan in a “homosexual” type way. He himself is not gay but uses his gay character to entertain. Most people in Japan observe gays, lesbians, and/or transgender people in media just as entertainers. Their perspective towards entertainers is often different from how they perceive homosexual in real life.

Pictures of Haado Gei

In the past several years there has been a movement toward the feminization of Japanese men. This has been a huge topic of TV talk shows, magazine articles, academic research, films and, perhaps most notably, public discourse. There is a large gay community in the cities of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. Gay liberation groups like ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Association) Japan, established in 1984, and OCCUR (Association for Moving Lesbians and Gays), founded in 1986, put the voices of the gay community out into the world. They also came out physically as they had the first Japanese Gay and Lesbian Parade in 1994 which was followed in 1996 by the establishment of another parade in Sapporo. In Shinjuku Ni-Chome, Tokyo, alone, there are over 200 gay bars, and the area is said to be like West Hollywood in California. A friend of mine who works in Shinjuku says that on Friday nights the area becomes abuzz with exiting atmosphere as many gays and lesbians come out to enjoy the nightlife.

In Japan, coming out of the closet and being open about one’s sexuality is still looked as a taboo. Another friend of mine says, “There are different levels of acceptance in big cities like Tokyo and in the countryside. But Japanese society should change. I think gays should be more proud of themselves.” A large number of celebrity homosexuals may be serving as an impetus for such a change.