The recent, immense popularity of queer Japanese media with a focus on domesticity is a form of respectability politics, where queer characters are seen to adhere to domestic (Japanese) domestic (household) ideals to counter the predominantly negative, anti-family prejudice pervasive in previous media about queer people in Japan. Unlike in the related ‘Boy’s Love’ genre in which male/male couples are intentionally separated from real-world ‘gay’ identities, these queer characters experience discrimination including rejection from housing, legal repercussions to child-rearing, inability to marry and thus lack access spousal rights in emergency situations. After experiencing this plot-related legal inequality, the characters return to their homes and are buoyed with domesticity, thus re-claiming their status as Japanese citizens where they can: the personal sphere. Through the cooking of washoku as a representation of domestic bliss, the making of homemade bento as a form of unconditional love, the passing down of family recipes and the upkeep of a clean, economic household, queer characters do not only assimilate into heteronormative Japanese structures but become ideal, aspirational Japanese citizens of a heteropatriarchal nation-state. To maintain this respectability, these queer stories remove any sense of filth, both in terms of eroticism and in uncleanliness. While an expansion in the representation of queer people outside of previous stereotypes is a step in a hopeful direction for the public understanding of queer identities, I conclude that a burden will continue to fall on queer people who cannot or do not wish to assimilate into these domestic structures.

Authors:
Nemo Martin, Kanazawa University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Nemo Madeleine Sugimoto Martin is a JSPS postdoctoral research fellow at Kanazawa University, Japan where they are currently researching queer identities in Japanese visual media from 2014-2024.

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