Until recently, seeing lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender characters in any form of Western media was rare. Even today with rising representation, harmful stereotypes far outweigh well-written characters. This problem is not just a Western problem, however. This problem exists all over the world.
Gay Men in Popular Culture
Japan is no exception. Though being LGBTQ is no longer illegal, marriage is still only allowed between a man and a woman (that is nowhere near the only issue, but that is another argument for another time). Japan’s sometimes-regressive views on homosexuality are reflected in its popular media. One of the most popular types of TV personalities is called the onē. Onē are incredibly feminine and flamboyant gay men (Brasor). Indeed, a trend in Japan (and in other countries) has been to view homosexual men as also being transgender or transsexual. Although there certainly are homosexual men who fit this profile, naturally not every homosexual man is like an onē, and having that be the only representation of homosexual men is limiting and problematic.[youtube]https://youtu.be/g_PoPIvKPe4[/youtube]
Representation in Film
One interesting issue the onē posits is the intersection between gender and sexuality in Japan. This issue is written about quite eloquently in Jonathan Hall’s article “Japan’s Progressive Sex: Male Homosexuality, National Competition, and the Cinema.” In the article, Hall discusses the “gay boom” in 1990s Japanese cinema through the scope of a few films. The film I want to mention here is the film Okoge, which “in keeping with a Japanese trend which relocates the gay male as a safe displacement of female desire, posits the heterosexual female as the audience’s point of identification in a film about the lives of gay Japanese men” (Hall). Here, we can see the intersection of misogyny and homosexuality: apparently when this film was made, women having sexual desire were still considered taboo, so that desire for men is represented with gay men. This way of thinking about homosexuality keeps it linked with the idea that gay people are also transgender (though, as I mentioned, some certainly are).
Representation in Literature
Because I have yet to see the films about which Hall writes, I do not feel completely comfortable analyzing their representation of queer people. However, there is a Japanese text that I have read that I would like to analyze. In the fall of 2014, I read Yoshimoto Banana’s book Kitchen. One thing that struck me when reading was the inclusion of a transgender woman character named Eriko. Not only does this book have a trans woman, but also this trans woman is a very well written, well-rounded character who serves as excellent representation of trans people (even if that was not in Banana’s mind when writing). She is a strong single (now) mother with an adult son. She owns and runs her own business (a gay bar). She is welcoming and kind. She does pass as a cisgender woman (someone assigned female at birth who identifies as woman), and while passing is not a requirement of being trans, it might help reluctant readers view her as more of a legitimate woman, even though she would be without any surgery. Although Eriko is eventually murdered–an unfortunate trope in many forms of media containing LGBTQ characters–her death makes sense in the narrative. I remember being absolutely amazed when reading. It was one of the first times I have ever seen such a positive view of transgender people in any media from any country.
Representation Before Post-Bubble Japan
Like many other cultures, Japan found ways to include queer people in its films since the early days of cinema. However, like many other cultures, that representation was often coded. Queer coding is a way to include queer people in media where only those who get the references to queer culture and signals will recognize the queer characters. One good example of this is the Ozu film Early Summer. This film contains a very short dialogue exchange between a friend of Noriko (the main character) and a man. In this exchange, the friend mentions that Noriko is obsessed with the Hollywood actress Katherine Hepburn. He then asks if Noriko is interested in women. 
(The word he uses is hentai, which means pervert). To many heterosexual viewers, this scene might be confusing or go on by without a second thought. However, to those who know the legacy of Katherine Hepburn as a queer-icon, this is an obvious code that Noriko might be queer (Kanno). But because the film never outright states either way, it is up to the viewer to decide. This representation is of course poor, but in a time when representation was few and far between, it may have been the only time queer people could see themselves on screen.
And even though media might still be harmful, the country as a whole is getting more accepting. For instance, Kamikawa Aya is the only out transgender woman to hold public office in Japan, and has been voted in for multiple terms. The times, they are changing. It will be amazing to see what the world is like in the near future.
Discussion Questions:
1. How does this representation differ from other cultures?
2. Is this type of representation and attitude linked with a “cool” Japan or a national identity?
Sources:
Brasor, Philip. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2012/03/25/news/medias-gender-roles-push-lgbt-groups-into-corners/#.VQ9cmUaJI1w
Hall, Jonathan. “Japan’s Progressive Sex: Male Homosexuality, National Competition, and the Cinema”
Kanno, Yuko. “Implicational Spectatorship: Hara Setsuko and the Queer Joke”
Jessica,
This is a very interesting topic and I applaud your efforts to teach us more about it. While it does appear that Japan has more LGBTQ characters in their mainstream media, I am, like you, hesitant to say that this is a good thing. From what I have seen, stereotyping and queer coding is unfortunately just as common in Japanese media as in Western media so I’m glad you mentioned it, although I personally do not think that I would give it enough credit to call it “representation.”
I am curious though, did you come across anything about the consumption of this type of media in Japan? Are there any similarities between the portrayal and fetishization we see of LGBTQ individuals and couples (for example, lesbian couples who exist solely to draw in the young straight male demo) in Western media and Japanese portrayals of LGBTQ individuals and couples?
I forgot to add something and I can’t figure out how to edit the comment so I’ll just post this here! I’ve never heard of any of your sources before, but Okoge looks like it would be really interesting. “Kitchen” looks like it would be a really good read, and seeing the positive response that you had to it really makes me want to look into it.
Thanks for the post!
Jessica,
Great job. It’s interesting that Japanese attitudes toward LGBTQ issues have mirrored American attitudes. I wonder how much of that is fallout from the postwar occupation. I’m not very familiar with the history of gay men as a symbol for nonthreatening female desire, though, so I can’t really say whether that has an American parallel.
I wonder if you’ve read Murakami Haruki’s Kafka on the Shore? That book also contains a notably positive rendering of a transgender character. Might be worth looking into.
Thanks!
Jessica,
I really like where you’re going with the topic. The concept of queer coding is fascinating and one that deserves a substantial amount attention. I am especially intrigued by the “gay boom” in 90s Japanese cinema, something I’m not at all familiar with. While I was taking Japanese Cinema, I do not recall any mentioning of such a phenomenon as we were approaching that era. It would be interesting to hear about about how it grew out of previous rhetoric about LGBTQ people and how it has potentially informed subsequent rhetoric.
Best of luck!
Jessica,
I actually find it surprising the amount of queer people in Japanese media in comparison to western culture. Though it may not always be the best representation or for the benefit of those in the LGBTQ community, it is still a larger amount of media than in the US. I also agree with the idea that there is a displacement of female desire in Japan. I would argue that this could still be seen today with the Yaoi industry whose consumer base is mainly female.
I really liked your post! Very interesting.
Thanks!
Jessica,
It sucks that discussion for your topic had to be cut short, so I wanted to post my thoughts here since I had a class starting directly afterwards. First of all, I noticed that your presentation mostly focused on non-anime or manga related topics, which introduced a lot of sources I’d never seen before which was awesome, and you briefly mentioned yaoi and yuri towards the end as representation of a brief example gays and lesbians within the anime and manga industry. While it’s definitely true those are the most obvious representations, I think it’s also important to acknowledge that probably 99% of those are created by and for the consumption of straight women and men, respectively. If it’s not queer-coding and it’s not a necessarily pejorative representation of gays and lesbians by straight individuals, what is it exactly? I think it’d be interesting, also, to contrast those images with what is presented on television, and with how gays and lesbians represent themselves within their own works. Specifically, in yuri manga written by women and in gay manga or “gei comi” by men. Seeing as how anime and manga itself is a subculture in the same way lgbt has developed a subculture, I think there’s a lot of overlap between the two that would yield some more varied representations that might help in writing your final paper (though of course the same lgbt-phobic attitudes exist at large within the anime/manga fan community).
Thanks!
Thank you, good article.
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Ankara Antika Alanlar