Japan Times Artical

[rinalin]

Whether To Come Out At The Office

I thought this was a particularly relevent artical on gay/lesbian relations in Japan. It focuses mostly on whether both Japanese and Foreign born residents of Japan feeling comfortable coming out at work, but there are also some very interesting bits regarding the future of GBLT relations in Japan.

I found it

Comments

[budiamond]

From discussions I've heard, it's more difficult to change the Japanese perspective on GLBT people, because the people in the West who are so opposed to homosexuality that they go out and preach against it are at least thinking about it, and understand it more the way that actual GLBT people do.

I guess the problem is that the first step to change is being open to discussion about a topic, and Japan being the way it is, isn't really into discussing that sort of thing.
Before they can even stop stigmatizing it, they have to understand it properly first. Like the idea that there is no gender identity crisis going on there, that there isn't going to be 'male' and 'female' roles in the relationship, that sort of thing.

I think that if everyone was willing to talk about it over there, they'd speed ahead of us in terms of equality, because the country isn't filled with people of Abrahamic religious faiths (the major GLBT roadblock of the West >>). But I'm not sure that it'll happen until America progresses further (I'm waiting for that, hoping it'll influence my country too...)

[aeslis]

Yeah, it's really true. Japanese people aren't open to discussion or critical thinking in any form. They stick to what they're used to even if simpler, smarter methods are pointed out to them. It's like: "Why do you go from point A to B to C to D to E to F? Why don't you just go from point A to point F?" "... Oh... well... we've always done it that way." "Well, let's do it the other way now, it's easier." "...I don't know if we can..." and then they proceed to go the long way around.

But when Japanese people change, they change in unison. It's really kind of creepy. Like how there's some predetermined day in Fall where all the women suddenly start wearing boots. Not even kidding. So if GLBT people are accepted in Japan, I have a feeling it will be a very sudden flip instead of a drawn out awakening.