Global/Local Intersections: History, Identity and Community in a Tokyo Subculture

This project challenges western models of sexual-identity formation by offering the first in-depth analysis of the development of minority sexual communities in a non-western urban setting. Drawing on archival material and oral accounts, the project will identify and describe key places, personalities and events that have influenced the course of minority sex and gender community formation in Tokyo in the modern (post-1867) period. It will result in a cultural history of the city that will significantly advance our understanding of the diverse impacts of urbanisation, modernisation and globalisation upon minority sexual communities and upon sexuality more generally.