Tokyo's gay scene is 300 bars and clubs packed to two blocks, where, perhaps surprisgly an otherwise regimented society, has been anythg go for s. So why, asks our Tokyo rrponnt David McNeill, is the wilst party town g to an end?
Contents:
- THE GAY TEEN-BOY ROMANCE COMIC BELOVED BY WOMEN JAPAN
- THE BOYS OF SHJU: IS TOKYO'S GAY DISTRICT DOOMED?
THE GAY TEEN-BOY ROMANCE COMIC BELOVED BY WOMEN JAPAN
In 1980, a gay man hid two journals above a light fixture a stiflg apartment Tokyo. Thirty years later, an Amerin teenager disvered . * japan gay teens *
01:50Sgaporeans celebrate untry’s first LGBTQ rally sce gay sex was crimalisedSgaporeans celebrate untry’s first LGBTQ rally sce gay sex was crimalisedImag pictg transgenr women as overly “mascule” – wh sturdy physiqu and mcl – are wily distributed to cement the view they look “distguishable” om men, said Aki Nomiya, a genr studi scholar at Kanagawa Universy. Over the past six years, activists Japan have prsed the Diet, the natnal parliament, to troduce a nondiscrimatn law that protects the rights of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people. In 1980, a gay man hid two journals above a light fixture a stiflg apartment Tokyo.
It was a vtage issue of the Japane gay magaze Barazoku, and two journals wh serene, waterlor vers, wrten between 1980 and 1984.
The diari belonged to Noriyi, a young gay man who had lived here alone, the sixth buildg of the first street of the fourth subdivisn of Nishishju nearly thirty years ago.
THE BOYS OF SHJU: IS TOKYO'S GAY DISTRICT DOOMED?
A gay Japane stunt is settg the world alight wh his spirg g out speech lled 'I Have A Dream Too'. * japan gay teens *
By the 1980s, when Noriyi would have equented the gay bars and ffee clubs of Ni-chōme, the area had bee the center of gay life Tokyo, and, by extensn, Japan. In a cy of mosts (most rtrants, most people, most vendg mach), Ni-chōme was no exceptn, boastg the hight ncentratn of gay bars, clubs, and f Asia—over 300 crammed to five square cy blocks. For young gay men like Noriyi, would have been the center of the world.
The days, wh the rise of ter datg and the greater acceptance of gay rights Japan, Ni-chōme’s role as a rare safe space for LGBT Japane has dimished, although is still the premier LGBT nightlife district the untry. By 1980, he’d found a job at a gay host bar, an eratn of the peculiar Japane stutn known as the hosts club, self a cheaper, grtier eratn of geisha culture.
The hosts, particularly women and gay men, are stigmatized for what is generally seen as improper work. Noriyi’s ia of fun was to take dgs—ually speed, acid, or MDMA, always phemistilly scribed as “medice”—and go dancg at his favore gay dis Ni-chōme, New Sazae, which is still around today, half a century after openg 1966. The days New Sazae and s effervcent, crisply drsed bar-master, Shn, who plays ‘70s and ‘80s dis for a middle-aged, not-entirely-gay crowd, have the aged grace of stutns.
Shju Ni-Chome has the hight ncentratn of gay and lbian bars of any neighborhood the world. * japan gay teens *
In a sea of nned cktails, Gay Water wants to stand out. In other words, where Bud Light has buckled unr prsure as bigotry grows agast the LGBTQ+ muny, Gay Water’s creator Spencer Hodson wants his new boozy brand to be the anthis of that. “The key issue that Bud Light tapped to was the fact that they didn’t unrstand their re dience and know enough about them,” Hodson, a gay man, told CNN about the ntroversy that began when the Anhser-Bch beer brand sent fluencer Dylan Mulvaney a n of beer.
Gay Water, however, is out and proud. The nned cktail is named after a lloquialism given to the popular mixed drk (vodka and soda) orred at bars by the gay muny.
“Puttg a product wh the word gay the tle is reprentatn self,” which he hop reclaims the word om the negativy ’s sometim associated wh. He thought of creatg Gay Water about a year ago while on a vatn wh his iend that had got a job wh the beverage dtry.
‘Boys for Sale’: the dark world of Japan’s gay prostutn * japan gay teens *
The two chatted about the limed amount of gay people wh , and wh Hodson burnt out om his tradnal day job tech, started the nned cktail. Hodson built up a strong social media followg on TikTok and Instagram durg Covid-19 and is g some of the money om that (as well as om iends and fay) to help fund Gay Water.
“Gay is an umbrella term and the ia behd the brand is to be as clive as possible, which means we want alli, we want straight people to be part of this muny we’re buildg.”. For now, Gay Water is sold largely onle (wh a few retailers) and four sugar-ee flavors — watermelon, lime, peach and grapeu — at lnch. Gay Water might not have the ep pockets pared to s petors, like Whe Claw, but “even at small sle, pani of many siz are havg succs makg spir-based seltzers and premixed cktails,” Bryan Roth, an analyst for Feel Goods Company and edor of the alhol beverage newsletter, Sightl+, told CNN.