The Transformation of Public Discourse on Sexual Minorities in Japan

In the past 30 years, sexual minorities, especially LGBTQ individuals, have increasingly garnered attention in Japan's public sphere, and debates on social issues related to sexual minorities have gradually taken shape, aligning with localized contexts. Within this backdrop, the field of Japanese sociology has conducted more detailed and comprehensive studies on sexual minorities, particularly the LGBTQ community, yielding significant results. On the other hand, numerous pieces of evidence suggest that the formation of such public discourse does not directly correspond to the narratives of sexual minority communities and activists. Many scholars have pointed out the political and economic intentions behind the attention to sexual minority issues and the problems that arise from these.

However, as research on sexual minorities, especially LGBTQ individuals, tends to focus on the lived realities of oppressed groups, it has overlooked the process of problematizing these realities. The counter-discourses initiated by specific sexual minority communities and activist organizations since the 1990s have gradually been absorbed into various social systems, with a trend toward mainstreaming through the implementation of SDGs policies and related legal frameworks.

Therefore, this study focuses on the formation of public discourse on sexual minorities, particularly LGBTQ individuals, in Japan. It conducts discourse analysis using news reports from the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Asahi Shimbun over the past 30 years since 1990. The study finds that Japan's public discourse on sexual minorities operates within two paradigms: a "discourse of othering" and a "discourse of diversity." In the former, sexual minorities are imagined as the 'other' of mainstream society, while in the latter, they are seen as offering diverse social values. Furthermore, in the overall shift of Japan's public discourse on sexual minorities from othering to diversity, the testimony of "concerned individuals" as a means of problematizing social issues has become the most common strategy.