Shinto

Gay and Lesbians in Shinto

Generally speaking there is less "coming out" in Japan. I can think of a few possible reasons for this

1) Groupism In the tight knit groupy world which is Japan, coming out will mean that one brands ones family has having a "not-normal-person" (from the point of view of the prejudiced majority), so people are less likely to admit their peculiarities, for fear of bring disrepute upon their groups. In general groupism promotes the need for harmony, and sameness. I don't happen to believe that the Japanese are particular collectivist, so I don't subsubcribe to this explanation.

2) A greater degree of taboo on homosexuality. This is even less likely since there is historically a respected tradition of homosexuality in Japan among the clergy, and warrior class. There was a time not so long ago, when it was looked upon as rather noble c.f. the novels of Ihara Saikaku such as the famous Great Mirror of Male love "5 women who love love" which I recommend some scholarly works, such as the following introduction, some of the jokes in "the chrisantemum and the fish"

3) Generally less importance placed upon sexuality as being definitive of the person. This is what I have argued in previous posts. In Japan there are people that are transsexual in that they prefer to behave as expected of the opposite sex. They, some of these "okama" or queens are quite famous, often express a sexual preference for people of the same sex. However, there seems to be a dearth of interest in defining ones sexual orientation, in isolation. For example, there was a fairly popular humorous manga in which one of the male characters enjoyed anal sex with his girlfriend's shoes, and generally the pleasures of anal sexuality and even the pleasures of homosexual sex between men seems to be something that that is presented as having a more general appeal. Sexual "orientation" is thus presented as more of something that one does rather than who one is. Hence defining ones sexual orientation "Am I more into boys or girls?" and further then defining who one is on the basis of ones sexual orientation, "Am I a gay" does not seem to be so common, due to the less central, less self defining, less sacred-and-tabooed position that sex has in Japanese society.