The assimilated secret: Understanding as silence in Japanese LGBT discourse

ABSTRACT

As discussion of LGBT issues has become mainstream in Japanese society and politics, numerous didactic media materials aim to cultivate public “understanding” of LGBT. But what precise understanding is sought? Through analysis of four books released in 2021, this article examines a recurring rhetorical strategy in which calls for acceptance define “LGBT” through invisibility and unknowability. LGBT individuals are depicted as primarily desiring the maintenance of nonrecognition, thus requiring the advocacy of tolerance-building media publications. Advocacy for (and often through) anonymity is replicated in the works’ content, which minimizes depictions of romance or sexuality. Invisibility is further prioritized by repeated warnings against outing others, described in language broad and sensational enough to cast all discussion of non-normative sexual/gender identities in a threatening light. The definitional status afforded to unknowability frames “understanding LGBT” as the acknowledgment of perpetually hidden minorities within Japanese society. By deploying this political ethic in transmedia tolerance-building content, consumption is promoted as the only method by which to interact with a fundamentally unreachable Other. As content creators promise to reveal secrets – only to exhort even stricter secrecy – the LGBT subject is constructed through the allure of mystery.

KEYWORDS:

• Diversity
• Japanese media
• LGBT politics
• outing
• queer pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ The usage of “rikai” and similar terms such as “shiru” and “wakaru” in these works’ discussion of LGBT often more closely echo the term “awareness” in English. I use “understanding” in this article because “rikai” also bears connotations of sympathy and compassion, which may inform the way that the term is applied.

² This article uses the term “LGBT” instead of “LGBTQ,” “LGBTQ+” or another combination because “LGBT” is the most common formulation found in Japanese political discourse at the time of writing. The term “LGBTQ+” is used when referring to sources that prefer it.

³ All primary sources used in this article were originally published in Japanese, and all translations are my own.

⁴ The same survey found that newspapers and TV enjoy the highest levels of public trust (61.2% and 53.8%, respectively; Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 2021, p. 219). In conducting this research, numerous newspaper and TV sources were surveyed, most of which followed the same patterns discussed in this essay (and often referenced the same individuals). The abbreviated and/or specialized content of the newspaper and TV formats, however, left no individual article or program assuming the role of generalized “introduction” to LGBT issues.

⁵ Kunitachi City’s webpage on sexual/gender diversity is an exception to this, as it uses the phrase “against the intent of the person involved” (“honnin no ishi ni hanshite;” Kunitachi City, 2022), leaving more allowance for publicly out identities. Nevertheless, that same webpage links to workplace guidelines for the city, which describe outing using the phrase “without obtaining acknowledgment from the person involved” (“honnin no ryōshō o ezu ni”), again suggesting the need for positive consent (Kunitachi City, 2021, p. 9).

⁶ A 2019 Dentsu survey found that 65.1% of LGBT people in Japan were not out to anyone (Yoshimoto, 2019). Similarly, a 2020 government-sponsored survey on LGBT work environments found that only 7.3% of lesbian, gay or bisexual respondents and 15.8% of transgender respondents had come out to even one person at their workplace (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2020, p. 234).