Beyond common sense : negotiating constructions of sexuality and gender in Japan

This thesis is concerned with lifestyles in Japan that have hitherto remained largely unreported. The main research categories are gay men, lesbian women, single men and women, and feminist men and women. In addition attention is given to transvestites, transsexuals and hermaphrodites. The main aim of the thesis is to provide an ethnography of the lives of the various categories, which is a new angle from which to view Japanese society. The research methods consist of participant observation and in depth open-ended free attitude interviews. Participant observation in this case includes all aspects of people's life: personal relationships and reading what people from the categories say they read. In addition I developed experiential research, i.e. experiencing what informants may experience. The major question from which the research started out is that of how people whose feelings, ideas or lifestyles do not agree with heterosexual marriage cope with life in a society in which everyone is expected to marry. In this sense the research goes a step beyond what much of anthropology does: establishing what are more or less standard lifestyles in a particular culture. After discussing the position of marriage in Japanese society in chapter three, including political and legal aspects, this thesis discusses how people of the various research categories may try to fit in with the idea that one should marry by entering marriage and the problems this may give in chapter four. In chapter five alternative lifestyles are discussed and in six ways of dealing with an outside world that has little understanding ~ people with alternative lifestyles, feelings, or ideas. In chapter seven ways in which the various categories are regarded and relate to each other, especially the relations between gender and sexuality and discourses of sex and sexual activites are investigated, as well as debates within and between individual and circles consisting of people from the various categories. In conclusion four themes, that played a role in the background throughout the ethnographic body of the thesis, are drawn together: 1) space, gender and sexuality, 2) constructions of homosexuality, .3) selves, and 4) changes: developments that took place while the research was conducted and have continued since

Between Margin and Centre: Researching "Non-standard" Japanese

Marginality depends on the relationship with something that is constructed as central or mainstream. In cross-cultural fieldwork, the position of the reseracher in relation to his informants may be marginal. Informants may be perceived as marginal in their society. Within academia, particular topics of research may be marginalized and funding organizations may not fund such topics. In the case of my research topics of sexuality, gender and sexual activity in Japan, Japanese government funding organizations appear to be relatively receptive, providing the themes are parsed in a valid academic manner. The bigger problem was establishing academic contacts, as there are few Japanese researchers working on sexuality. As a researcher, my position was not particularly different from other people in the networks and groups concerned. The question of marginality of the informants in relation Japanese society depends greatly on one's vantage point. Generally, informants did not think in terms like marginality and in many ways they were full members of their society. Sexuality, however, is trivialized as a topic, as a result of which coming out as gay or lesbian or discussing one's activities as a a sex worker may lead to some extent of marginalization. However, this is the case with all sexuality that transgresses clearly defined boundaries. Within the academic establishment may lie the biggest problem in relation to marginality. Sexuality is often not regarded as a proper topic for investigation, which may lead to an overtheorization of issues on which few data are available. Many academics have had little sex education and their home cultures often place strong moral judgements on matters pertaining to sex, thus preventing a proper academic discussion

Virtual ethnography: Using the internet to study gay culture in Japan

After English and Chinese, Japanese is the most widely represented language on the internet and yet few studies have been made of how communities in Japan engage with this new technology. This article looks at the internet both as a virtual space in which Japanese and foreign gay men can meet as well as a means for making offline assignations. The author reflects on his own use of the internet in his research on gay communities in Japan, suggesting that the internet has made it possible to reach out to and work with a wider variety of Japanese gay men than was previously possible. It is suggested that gay men's use of the internet in Japan is illustrative of Appadurai's argument that this new technology provides a unique opportunity for relationship building between individuals who are otherwise deterritorialized, diasporic and transnational