A University of Queensland academic has written what is believed to be the first book in English examining the Japanese media's representation of male homosexuality.
Dr Mark McLelland's book, Male Homosexuality in Modern Japan: Cultural Myths and Social Realities (Curzon Press) offers a contemporary snapshot of gay stereotypes as they are represented in Japanese popular culture including magazines, newspapers, comics, TV, novels, theatre and the Internet.
"Representations of male homosexual love and even sex permeate Japanese popular culture to an extent that's unimaginable in the US or Europe," Dr McLelland said.
"However, same-sex desire is viewed in a different way to western society."
Dr McLelland, of the University's Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, has based his book on his PhD studies which improve knowledge of an aspect of Japanese society which until recently had received little academic attention.
He said Japan was the world's only fully "modernised" non-western culture, a nation of 126 million people, which presumably had the same proportion of homosexual men and women as other societies.
However, Japanese beliefs had been fashioned in a different religious and political climate from that of western countries. For example, many Japanese people still revered the ancestor system and the important role of marriage for propagating children. This meant that many men and women who experience same-sex desire still felt constrained to marry a partner of the opposite sex. Yet, despite the fact that getting married was considered an essential life step for both men and women, there were opportunities for sexual interactions outside marriage, particularly for men.
"Japan is a permissive society as long as everything is done to schedule. Women are meant to be married by age 27, and men by 29. If a man is not married by 32 or 33 essentially he can say goodbye to further career advancement. But Japan has an extensive sex industry and it is not necessarily considered a bad thing for a man to dabble on the side so long as he treats it in a lighthearted manner as a 'hobby' or 'play'," he said.
Until the past few years, little information was available in English about homosexuality in modern Japan and there was only one book and a handful of academic papers concerning Japan's well-attested historical tradition of homosexuality.
"Today, a number of books deal with the historical background of male homosexuality in Japan in considerable detail. Others look at homosexuality in modern Japan from biographical, cultural, literary or anthropological perspectives," he said.
"There's now sufficient information about male homosexuality in contemporary Japan to make interesting contrasts with understandings of homosexuality in western societies.
"As long as an individual's sexual practices don't interfere with or challenge the legitimacy of marriage and the family, Japanese society accommodates - and in the case of men, even indulges - a diversity of sexual behaviours.
"This tolerance is extended even to homosexual sex, which, although it is not to be spoken about, is easily available in Japan, where there is no legislation relating to sex between men or sex between women. Hence, many Japanese gay men resist the western notion of 'gay rights' and there is a relative lack of 'identity politics' expressed by gay people in Japan. "
Dr McLelland said discussion of homosexuality was common in a wide variety of Japanese media. However, it was almost impossible to give clear content to any of the terms currently in use because they tended to mix up same-sex desire with cross-dressing and transgenderism for both men and women.
"Despite the frequent and widespread references to homosexuality in a variety of Japanese popular media, none of these representations really show actual men or women who experience same-sex desire going about their daily lives much as 'normal' people do.
"There is hardly any discussion in Japanese media about homosexuality as a specific 'identity' or 'lifestyle choice.' Yet, compared with the US, there is little overt hostility in the media directed towards homosexuals either.
"So far, the visibility of 'homosexuality' in Japanese media such as comic books, women's magazines, TV dramas and talk-shows, movies and popular fiction has not created space for individuals expressing lesbian or gay 'identities' to come out in actual life.
"Recent research has shown that the notion of 'coming out' is seen as undesirable by many Japanese gay men and lesbians as it necessarily involves adopting a confrontational stance against mainstream lifestyles and values, which many still wish to endorse."
While representations of and discussions about male homosexuality were frequent in Japanese popular culture, their reception differed according to the anticipated audience. Women tended to produce and consume homoerotic stories about bishoonen (beautiful youths) whom they fantasized as ideal men.
"This has led in some books, magazines and movies directed at a female audience to a discourse which posits the homosexual man as a sympathetic best friend for women and even a woman's 'best partner.'
"However, where a male gaze is anticipated, men who transgress to the feminine are treated humorously. 'Homosexuality' is a topic which will always get laughs and therefore asides and references to it are a staple of many Japanese TV documentaries and 'wide shows'," he said.
Dr McLelland is the author of many academic papers on homosexuality and gender issues in Japan including male homosexuality in Japanese women's comics, "friendship marriages" between gay men and straight women and the use of the Internet by Japan's sexual minorities.
A Cambridge University Bachelor of Arts graduate in Theology (1988), he obtained a prestigious Monbusho scholarship to continue his postgraduate studies of Japanese new religions at the University of Tokyo. After living in Japan for five years, Dr McLelland turned his attention to other less researched aspects of modern Japanese society, undertaking his PhD on contemporary representations of homosexual culture in the Japanese Studies Department at the University of Hong Kong.
His current research at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies includes investigating the use of the Internet by Japan's sexual minorities and he is currently co-editing a book with Associate Professor Nanette Gottlieb of Asian Languages and Studies entitled Japanese Cybercultures.
Media: Further information, Dr Mark McLelland, telephone 07 3365 7175 or Jan King at UQ Communications, telephone 0413 601 248 or email: communications@mailbox.uq.edu.au.
