Gay Japan, Erotic Fictn and the Imperial Imagatn - Stanford Universy

Contents:

• GAY MEN AND HIV JAPAN
• GAY JAPAN, EROTIC FICTN AND THE IMPERIAL IMAGATN
• GAY JAPANE

GAY MEN AND HIV JAPAN

Samuel Perry's talk explor several works of erotic fictn published gay Japane magaz the 1970s, works which nnect qutns of imperial vlence and s legaci to the experienc of gay men and to gay male sexualy. He is terted broad qutns about transnatnal sexualy— so far as how Japane gay culture emerg relatn to Wtern and other non-Wtern sexuali—but also unrstandg how the legaci of WWII, specifilly, ndned the emergence of a new gay male subject the new age of perpetual warfare.

While many excellent transnatnal studi of Japane gay fictn have examed how early “postwar” Japane texts draw on the whe bodi of US soldiers to nstct Japane gay sexuali, his paper turns to a later moment when Japan’s re-emergence to the Asian marketplace dilat a space which Asian bodi beg to circulate wh the currents of gay male sire, a space that is both problematic and cril for discsns of ter-Asian sexualy. But to actually be lockg ey wh Ellen and hold her, shakg hands as she said, "I'm gay, " on natnal televisn and for the first time, as she has shared outloud that way publicly, was such a profoundly extraordary and timate gift to that moment that I will forever be grateful for.

In districts like Shju Nichōme, Tokyo’s gay neighborhood, Japane and foreign talk, drk, and mgle, long-standg private bars, clubs, drag shows, and on the streets outsi nvenience stor. Their relatnships most likely varied greatly by suatn and across time perds, but a typil nanshoku pairg rporated many dimensns: mentorship and stewardship, platonic iendship, as well as physil acts of homosexual sex. While historil pictns of Nobunaga and Ranma sometim fully portray them as gay lovers, we mt be reful to separate historic nanshoku and the figur there om LGBTQ issu today, and to avoid mornizg norms of that era to f our ncept of sexualy and romance.

GAY JAPAN, EROTIC FICTN AND THE IMPERIAL IMAGATN

We n fer queer people have always existed, and that some practners of nanshoku—perhaps cludg Nobunaga and Ranma—might have self-intified as queer or gay if displaced to our morn time wh our morn fns, although we nnot know for sure. Doyama, a gay district send size only to Tokyo's Ni-Chome, cements Osaka's stat as the downtown of Japan, wh other lorful nightlife districts sttered throughout the cy. There has recently been much discsn the field of lbian and gay studi about Dennis Altman's theory of 'global queerg'[1] which outl the fluence of the Civil Rights' Movement the US and Europe on the velopment of lbian and gay 'inti' which then, through the 'globalisg' fluence of post-dtrial wage-based enomi, nsumerism, the mass media and tourism, turn beg to affect digeno unrstandgs of homosexualy societi where tradnally there has been no notn of a personal inty found on the genr of sexual object choice.

In this theory, the US is often assumed to be somehow advance of the rt of the world and the mols pneered that untry for creasg the social space acrd to lbian and gay liv are generalised as suable mols for lbians and gay men other untri to adopt.

GAY JAPANE

To what extent have digeno Japane unrstandgs of same-sex sire, fashned a relig and polil climate que different om that wtern untri, been fluenced by wtern mols of lbian and gay inty?

Until recently, was impossible to answer this qutn for, even five years ago, there was practilly no rmatn available English about homosexualy morn Japan and there was only one book and a handful of amic papers ncerng Japan's well-attted historil tradn of male homosexualy. [2] Today, there are a number of books which al wh the historil background of male homosexualy Japan nsirable tail and others which look at homosexualy morn Japan om bgraphil, cultural, lerary or anthropologil perspectiv.

Unfortunately, spe the new rmatn that has recently been ma available, some rearchers still sist on viewg 'homosexualy' Japane society through wtern ey and evaluatg the suatn facg lbians and gay men acrdance wh wtern mols of what means to be 'a lbian' or 'a gay. [5] Summerhawk plas of the 'difficulti' Japane gay men have 'the inty-velopment procs' (emphasis me) as if there ever uld be a sgular, universal 'gay inty' and suggts that Japane gay men who do not wish to exprs themselv terms of this imported termology are 'nial of their own opprsn.