‘Boys for Sale’: the dark world of Japan’s gay prostutn
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BOYS FOR SALE: AN INTRIGUG DOCUMENTARY ABOUT GAY PROSTUTN JAPAN
* 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.
The actn tak place the Shju 2-chrome sectn of Tokyo, which one male prostute or urisen not is “The gay center of Asia.
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 *
” 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.
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 * gay prostitution in japan *
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.