But on an individual level, there’s still a long way to go. On a societal scale, Hayashi says Japan really is getting better.
Since coming, Hayashi and his mom have made amends. In 2014, 15,000 people participated in the festival. One big way to tell perceptions are shifting is by looking at what’s happening to Tokyo’s gay pride festival. It’s not as big of a deal any more," Welker says. more people are open to the idea that, hey, some people are gay or lesbian or bisexual. "Because of the more positive normalizing - and normal is a problematic word in media discourse . And Yokohama, Japan’s second biggest city, adjacent to Tokyo, recently announced a city-supported LGBT festival for this fall.
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The Japanese Parliament now also has a committee looking into how to end discrimination. James Welker, a professor who studies gender and sexuality in Japan, says although neither district’s decision is legally binding it’s created a certain momentum about same-sex partnership and LGBT rights in a really short period of time. In July, Setagaya, another influential district in Tokyo, recognized same-sex marriage. "We went from, 'Can you really be a company providing services to the LGBT community?' To: Letibee, your time has come," Hayashi says. Hayashi says until that moment, seeing LGBT rights splashed across the front page of the newspaper was unimaginable. and it never implied that the 2 guys will be together or not. hugs or holding hands the most you can see. slashable anime has some bl moments or hints of guy x guy moments. Some Ive seen, some are on my plan to watch list. Shibuya, one of the most well-known districts in Tokyo - think - Times Square mashed up with the West Village, but with more governing power - recognized same-sex marriage. Anime series, OVA, specials and movies yaoi themed. On top of the ups and downs of running a startup, Hayashi has been a running a startup aimed at a community no one thought was important.Īnd then in April, everything changed. And they’re about to launch an app they hope will provide a safe space for LGBT to connect and build community. They do corporate consulting, teaching companies about sexuality, sexual minorities - and how to respond to LGBT as customers and employees. It’s a media site featuring everything from news to stories on trans- and gay-friendly hair salons to people writing about their own coming out experiences. Today Hayashi is the CEO of Letibee - meant to sound like Let it be. If we don't do something, the next generation will suffer just as much." "Say someone like me comes out to their parents in five years, and they’re also told that’s disgusting," Hayashi says. At first they were doing it mostly for fun, but then they started learning about the high suicide rate of sexual minorities in Japan. And they won a huge student business competition. Together they planned a wedding and life services company for the queer community. One day a friend - the only other friend he had who was openly gay - said he wanted to start a company to do same-sex weddings. In college, Hayashi was doing research on the untapped LGBT market in Japan. And LGBT individuals often feel isolated.
Schoolyard bullying and discrimination are known problems.
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And for years it wasn't uncommon to see a cross-dresser on TV giving fashion advice or a Japanese cartoon with gay characters.īut while being openly gay has been OK for famous people or anime characters, on an individual level, it’s been really hard to be out in Japan.
Japan - unlike the US - doesn't have a Puritan history that says homosexuality is some kind of cardinal sin. That’s disgusting,” she said, according to Hayashi. That really hurt. "I just kind of said it quickly, 'Hey, I’m gay,'" he recalls. As rare as they may be, there’re still some excellent options.When 24-year-old Koki Hayashi first came out to his mom, he was a junior in college.
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You’d be amazed and disappointed at how little the selection there is compared to all the other genres.Īnd since the selection is so small, this makes it even harder for a good anime series to come along. Trust me, I’ve done my research on this topic, searching high and low for some BL anime recommendations. Let’s just say that people with good taste usually watch BL animes!ĭespite its long history, there is surprisingly not a lot of anime to watch in this genre. I don’t love using the term fujoshi, which has somewhat negative connections. This genre is a popular niche among certain demographics. Yaoi is more explicit, shounen ai is more innocent, and BL tends to be the best of both worlds. In anime, the BL genre is closely related to yaoi or shounen ai, which are labels that describe a very similar type of story. Before BL dramas or movies became mainstream, BL animes and mangas were like the first frontier, depicting male romances in fiction even when it was taboo in society. From my memory, it always felt like BL anime existed as a genre for as long as I can remember.