A Surprising Lack of Awareness
When I came to Japan 8 years ago as a young gay man, I worried about living openly in a famously conservative society. However what surprised me most was not any discrimination or harassment, but people’s complete lack of understanding about LGBT people in general. It seemed that the vast majority of people weren’t even aware that gay people exist!
When I first arrived in Japan I was often asked “Do you have a girlfriend?”, to which I would answer “No, actually I have a boyfriend”. Coming from Western Europe this was something I was used to saying openly and I had never had any issues before back home. However when I said this to local people I was immediately met with puzzled looks and most people just assumed that my Japanese must be really bad!
I would then try to further explain that I was gay and that I dated men and not women, however this either confused them more or just made them think that I had some weird fetish that I should be keeping private. Either way it was super awkward.
After a while I gave up correcting people and would simply tell them that I didn’t have a girlfriend. But this complete lack of awareness that gay people exist always bothered me throughout my years in Japan. Recently I’ve started to see a few LGBT related articles in newspapers and on the news (mostly thanks to great LGBT achievements in Europe and North America), but in general I feel most Japanese people think of LGBT people like the “okama” comedians that they see on TV shows, and don’t yet realize that in fact there are many LGBT people living completely normal lives among them.
My home country recently legalized same-sex marriage by popular vote, something that I’m very proud of, and while the LGBT movement in Japan is just getting started, I have high hopes that one day Japanese LGBT people will feel just as proud of their own home country.
Rob
University Staff
