ABSTRACT
The chapter traces the portrayals of gay men in the writing of Murakami Haruki and their gradual transformation during the writer’s long career. Drawing examples from multiple works, I show how gay characters begin appearing in small episodes in the early novels but gradually play bigger and more important roles, and argue that this shift is likely to be a reflection of social changes taking place in Japanese society. While early gay characters can be seen as somewhat stereotyped, in later years, they become more complex and nuanced. We see this, for instance, in the macho gay bodyguard Tamaru in 1Q84 and Mr Ōshima in Kafka on the Shore, a transgender gay male with the physical characteristics of a woman. The article also refers to the terms Murakami uses for gays in his translations of American literature.
