Former local resident writes about gay life in Japan.

Some observations on gay life in Japan.

By a former Bellingham resident who lives in Osaka, Japan. Nov 20 2005.

I was asked about the gay community here in Japan. Here are some observations from the Osaka/Kobe region (also known as the Kinki region) which I thought some might find interesting.

I won't say that the gay community is public here, but its not hard to find. Gay personalities on TV are of the "liberace/little queen" variety and are seen as entertainment. To take homosexuality serious is still a trying issue, up there with women having careers before marriage and not getting married and having kids immedietly out of high school. There's lots of bars and a couple "saunas" here. You'll get hundreds of men - of ALL ages - gathering together at the saunas at night for ambiguous sex. Not all of them "gay", but just looking for a little release that they can't get from their (frigid) wives or girlfriends. (Though, some say that the wives are frigid because japanese men lack an ability to "pleasure" someone. Around here, sex is more like rape and 5 minutes is a looong time not a quickie.) Also, you'll find a lot of Japanese men who "cuddle up" to foreigners, if for no other reason then to check out the big foreign cocks.

As for homosexuality in the history books .... Post-war novelists Mishima was gay and committed suicide, some say, because of this. He's also one of the MOST well-known and POPULAR writers of the past century. He wrote a lot of stuff and it's all in English and available. Some of it has gay themes, some not. For me his stories are more psychological than event oriented. There was an artistic trend in

the mid-century, as Japan was pulling itself out of the ruins, to exam the Japanese psychi. This made for some intense, though often depressing, stories. As for what the Japanese discuss concerning Mishima's sexual life, I can't say. Probably not much. Japan is famous for its revisionist histories. I don't know how much Mishima is still read by Japanese. I think in school he's treated like Hemingway. You read him because he's a classic, more than any other reason.

Now, as for other homosexuals in the literary fold, there are some contemporary authors - translated into English - that write novels dealing with lesbians, gays, etc. These books are fairly popular. But, they don't break the cardinal rule. That being, homosexuality, no matter how entertaining on tv, gay is actually something that is a bit perverse and "underground culture-ish". The idea of a Castro Street is really not welcome. Gays are almost in the same league as prostitutes, blow-job bar girls, their pimps and the crime syndicate. Basically, its a fringe group.

As for other countries. It's a bit different. In Thailand, homosexuality is open and sexuality seen as something fluid and changing. But, Bangkok is a whole different story.