Masami Tamagawa - Japanese LGBT Diasporas: Gender, Immigration Policy and Diverse Experiences

While empirical studies on LGBT refugees from Muslim countries are common, these studies are rare from Northeast Asian countries. Through a close examination of the data collected from an online survey, as well as follow-up responses, this study explores the lives of Japanese LGBT individuals in the USA, Canada, and Australia and seeks to find some of the major reasons they have left Japan , their present situations, needs, and future plans. The findings from the three different countries will be comparatively examined. Also, the findings from this project will be compared with the findings from previous studies on LGBT refugees and carefully examined to identify some of the major similarities as well as differences between Japanese LGBT immigrants and LGBT refugees.

A refugee from Japan may sound an oxymoron; however, the findings will attest, although Japan does not have a sodomy law , LGBT experiences in Japan are not any better. Japanese society seems to tolerate ( kany ) its queer members, as long as they stay in their place on the societys margin, Japanese LGBT individuals typically experience an overt, direct rejection, including homophobia , when they come out to their parents. Due to their social marginalization as well as rejection by their parents, Japanese LGBT individuals suffer greatly and have some profound reasons to leave the country.

Once in the USA, Canada, or Australia, Japanese LGBT diasporas continue to have some major difficulties, due, for example, to immigration issues , cultural differences, and a language barrier , among others. Further, the findings attest that migration to these countries is a gendered experience and that gay men, and possibly bisexual men, seem to have some critical advantages over the others at multiple points in Japan as well as abroad in their course of migration. Moreover, immigration as well as LGBT policies in their host countries play major roles in their experiences abroad. In conclusion, I will address their special needs among Japanese LGBT diasporas , highlighting suggestions and recommendations for lawmaker and activists, and propose social services aimed at them.

In Japanese history, a little over a million people have migrated overseas. Apart from a few diplomats, travelers, and the like, the majority of them have left the country over the last 150 years, notably, approximately 800,000 people from the mid-nineteenth century to the outbreak of World War II (JICA ).