ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of sexual minority studies on Japan conducted both in Japanese and English, across the last two decades or so. There have been numerous works published by both academics and non-academics who have attempted to critique heteronormative understandings of Japan’s culture and society. The rise of ‘transgender’ as an identity category since the 1990s opened up a new horizon for the Japanese perception of people who transgress gender boundaries. Japan is, needless to say, a country of diverse ethnicities and nationalities, despite claims to the contrary. There has been a widespread perception that Japanese society is ‘tolerant’ towards homosexuality and queer cultures in general. In Japanese society, sexual minorities, who suffer from various forms of discrimination and disadvantage, have reason to feel solidarity with other marginalised groups, such as persons with disabilities.
