An Ethnographic Study of the Politics of Identity and Belonging Jane Esther
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Being LGBT in Japan: An ethnographic study of the politics of identity and belonging Jane Esther Wallace Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of Languages, Cultures, and Societies and School of Sociology and Social Policy July 2018 ii iii The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Jane Esther Wallace to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © The University of Leeds and Jane Esther Wallace iv Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank all of the respondents and gatekeepers who made this research possible. Without your time and patience, this research could not have happened. I would also like to thank those who have continued to guide me and provide feedback on my analysis during the analysis stage. This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of Great Britain, with reference 1368644. I also received funding from the British Association of Japanese Studies through the John Crump Scholarship, with reference JC2017_35. I would also like to thank the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation (GBSF), who supported me financially with a 6-month scholarship and invited me to various GBSF workshops and events. The networks that these events have fostered have been invaluable. Thank you to my supervisors, Dr Irena Hayter and Professor Sally Hines. Your continued support and feedback throughout my research has helped to form not only the project, but also my character as a researcher. Thank you particularly for the support and solidarity you showed when life happened in the middle of writing-up. Thank you to Professor Itō Kimio who hosted me at the University of Kyoto, and guided me during the fieldwork. Thank you to Matsui Kazuko who looked after me when I arrived at the University of Kyoto. I would also like to thank my Japanese teachers: Yazawa-sensei and Tanaka- sensei at the Japan Foundation in Osaka, and Morimoto-sensei, Oeda-sensei, and Takewa-sensei who patiently taught me during my early days at the University of Leeds. I am grateful for my family, who have supported me through the research. Thank you to my mum for filling my bottle, and for always teaching me to be independent and never give up. Thank you also to George, whose weekly hugs were often a source of great power. Thank you to my best friend and partner Andy for providing emotional support, rum- based drinks, and book shopping trips as and when needed. Thank you to my sister, Emily – if it hadn’t been for that letter you wrote me seven years ago, I would not have had the courage to do this. Thank you to John for always being on my side. To little Ramona – world’s biggest Twilight Sparkle fan – I wish you would never grow up, but you have to, so grow up strong and brave. This is the place where I’m supposed to write a sappy message to dad, but we’re all agreed that if spirits exist they’re certainly not thinking v about PhD theses. I think about him every day. That space will never be filled, but this has distracted me for a while. Thank you to my friends, without whom I am quite sure I would not be finishing this thesis. To Lynley – I can’t think of a better person to have by my side, you can always put into words what I cannot. To Yuka for our daily chats and otaku team activities – I’ll never find a person with a better Raymond Reddington GIF collection, a deeper understanding of my Hannibal Lecter obsession, or with a fiercer love for her friends. Thanks to Karl for leasing the throne and being my go-to idea checker. To Makiko, you have supported and championed me without fail for nearly 15-years, thank you. vi Abstract This thesis presents an ethnographic study of the politics of identity and belonging amongst a community of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) individuals living in Japan. There is considerable existing scholarship which examines the lived experiences of gender and/or sexual minority individuals in Japan. However, many of these studies tend to focus upon individuals living in Tokyo, and upon specific groups of identities along the LGBT spectrum. This study aimed to broaden the view of the politics of identity and belonging across the LGBT spectrum, and in areas of Japan outside of Tokyo. This research focussed upon the ways in which respondents understood and practiced their identities during a period of intense mainstream media focus upon LGBT lives in Japan from 2015 to 2016. This acute upsurge in mainstream media attention, which has now been dubbed the ‘LGBT boom’ meant that LGBT lives became suddenly more publicly visible. However, there remains scant legal protection for LGBT individuals in Japan and issues related to (in)visibility remain a key feature of everyday life. This study was serendipitously timed to investigate these phenomena from the perspective of the individuals whom the LGBT boom claimed to represent. The study produced a body of rich, qualitative data from across the LGBT spectrum, and across intersections of nationality, gender, and physical location. This original empirical data allowed several theoretical contributions to knowledge. The study has shown that the gender and/or sexual minority communities in Japan are heterogeneous, and deeply hierarchical. They are also actively and overtly involved with a politics of identity and belonging. These politics of identity and belonging are performative and affectual, and bring about both inclusions and exclusions. This thesis represents a starting point for further ethnographic investigation into the lived reality of LGBT lives in Japan. vii Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv Abstract vi Table of Contents vii List of Figures xii List of Tables xii Note on translation and language conventions xiii Glossary and Abbreviations xiv Chapter 1 - Introduction 1 2.1 Introduction 1 2.2 The ‘LGBT boom’ 2 2.3 Chapter outline 9 Chapter 2 – Literature viii Review 13 3.1 Introduction 13 3.2 Part 1: Historical background 14 3.2.1 Nanshoku and sexology 14 3.2.2 Sexuality during the Second World War 19 3.2.3 Japan’s ‘gay booms’ 20 3.2.4 The emergence of gay studies 24 3.2.5 The development of scholarship on lesbian and queer women 31 3.3 Part 2: Gender and sexuality research in the contemporary period 35 3.3.1 Studies of transgender: from patholigisation to x-jendā 35 3.3.2 Scholarly responses to the LGBT boom 41 3.4 Conclusion: situating the study 49 Chapter 3 - Research design and methodology 53 4.1 Introduction 53 4.2 The LGBT ‘community’ in Japan 53 4.3 Aims and research questions 54 4.4 Research design 60 4.5 The respondents 64 4.5.1 Gender(s) 65 4.5.2 Nationality, race, and ethnicity 68 4.5.3 Socio-economic backgrounds and other relevant information 70 4.5.4 Approaches to recruitment 71 4.6 Data collection 73 4.6.1 Participant observations 73 4.6.2 Interviews 76 4.7 Data reduction and analysis 78 4.8 Writing ethnographic research 83 4.9 Ethical considerations 85 4.9.1 Informed consent 85 4.9.2 Anonymity and privacy 87 4.9.3 Reflexivity and positionality 88 4.10 Conclusion 92 ix Chapter 4 - Activism and its meanings: field, habitus, and cultural capital 95 5.1 Introduction 95 5.2 LGBT activism in Wakayama and the case of Asataka’s t-shirt 96 5.2.1 IDAHOT in Wakayama City 96 5.2.2 The controversy prompted by Asataka’s t-shirt 100 5.3 Asataka’s t-shirt as a ‘contact moment’ 103 5.4 LGBT related activism as a field 105 5.5 Learning the ‘rules of the game’: habitus and the field 110 5.6 Cultural capital in the field 114 5.7 Cities as the physical location of cultural capital 115 5.8 Queerness as cultural capital 120 5.9 Conclusion 125 Chapter 5 - The politics of (mis)recognition at the Kansai LGBT Coming of Age Ceremony 128 6.1 Introduction 128 6.2 Recognition and queer visibility: a brief overview 129 6.3 Setting the scene 132 6.3.1 The development of the Kansai LGBT Seijinshiki 132 6.4 The 2015/16 Kansai LGBT seijinshiki: a vignette 135 6.5 Recognition politics and the queering of space at the Kansai LGBT seijinshiki 139 6.5.1 Conceptualising the queering of space 139 6.5.2 The LGBT seijinshiki as a queering of space 142 6.6 The LGBT seijinshiki as a site of privilege 148 6.6.1 Exclusions and unequal access 148 6.6.2 Reinforcement: the burden of responsibility 151 6.7 The other side of the tape: the politics of queer visibility in everyday life 153 6.7.1 Compulsory invisibility 154 6.7.2 Ambivalence 158 6.7.3 Compulsory visibility 161 x 6.8 Conclusion 164 Chapter 6 - Belonging, fear, and nostalgia: the role of the internet 167 7.1 Introduction 167 7.2 Defining ‘belonging’ 168 7.3 Belonging in the internet age 172 7.3.1 Place-belongingness and online space 173 7.3.2 Belonging as a performative practice 179 7.4 Local contexts: fears and nostalgia 182 7.4.1 Fear: the primacy of tōjisha voices and the reliability of information 182 7.4.2 Nostalgia: face-to-face contact and ‘slow’ information 189 7.5 Conclusion 201 Chapter 7 - Imaginative geographies and affective practices of belonging 204 8.1 Introduction 204 8.2 The (almost) impossible task of theorising ‘Japanese’ and ‘Western’ experiences 206 8.3 Framing identities and experience through notions of Japan and the West 212 8.4 Imaginative geographies