Mark McLelland, Is There a Japane 'Gay Inty'?, Culture, Health & Sexualy, Vol. 2, No. 4, Cril Regnali: Genr and Sexual Diversy South East and East Asia (Oct. - Dec., 2000), pp. 459-472
Contents:
BOYS FOR SALE: AN INTRIGUG DOCUMENTARY ABOUT GAY PROSTUTN JAPAN
‘Boys for Sale’: the dark world of Japan’s gay prostutn * gay prostitution in japan *
Several ‘urisen’ parlours operate Tokyo’s 2-chome gay district offerg prostutn, the subject of a new, award-wng documentary. Photo: Connie Kurtew Although technilly not illegal, gay prostutn remas cloaked secrecy, and a new film reveals the ‘boys’ themselv often have no ia about the health risks they are takg Published: 12:33pm, 7 Jan, 2018 Updated: 12:32pm, 7 Jan, 2018 Several ‘urisen’ parlours operate Tokyo’s 2-chome gay district offerg prostutn, the subject of a new, award-wng documentary. The film follows 10 urisen — mostly straight Japane boys who sell sex to men — as they discs their workg ndns, how they end up makg money this way and what ’s like havg sex wh 70-year-olds — some of whom piss, sp and sh on you — when you’re not even gay, wr Melma Magaze.
GAY JAPAN
In 1980, a gay man hid two journals above a light fixture a stiflg apartment Tokyo. Thirty years later, an Amerin teenager disvered . * gay prostitution in japan *
The actn tak place the Shju 2-chrome sectn of Tokyo, which one male prostute or urisen not is “The gay center of Asia.
” Someone adds, there are over 800 gay bs Japan. One young gay man, Tamura Hisanori, 28, fluent English, not why there is such a big need for male prostut: “Japan is an island wh a very nservative kd of mentaly. If you are ethnilly or sexually different, they tend to discrimate agast you, but not a homophobic way as we know the Wtern untri.
Wh the famo gay bar street on 2-Chome (pronounced ni-cho-mei), many clubs and pubs, and, of urse, the Shju Kabicho Red Light District * gay prostitution in japan *
The film reflects upon the dark world of gay prostutn Japan where the sex workers had no ia how AIDS is transmted. In the end, Boys for Sale lv to s chosen topic wh unbridled fse, unearthg the untry’s hypocril attu towards gays and sex general.
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. 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.
* gay prostitution in japan *
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.