Attitudes Toward Non-Normative Sexualities Among University Students in Japan: Quantitative Analysis (Part1)

Purpose: Although there is a sizeable body of social research on gender inequality in Japan, biases against sexual minority groups have remained largely uninvestigated. Through surveying university students, we examined the feelings of heterosexual people towards sexual minorities.

Method: We conducted questionnaire surveys at three universities (n=724). Members of sexual minority groups in the sample were excluded from the analysis. We used t-test to compare the negative emotions towards different sexual minorities.

Results: We compared feelings towards female homosexuality, male homosexuality, bisexuality, having ambiguous (neither male nor female) gender identity, and undergoing sex reassignment surgery (SRS). Firstly, among five items, feeling towards ambiguous gender identity is the most negative and SRS is the most positive. Among three sexual orientations, male homosexuality is the most negative, and female homosexuality is the most positive. Then we compared the averages among feelings towards sexual activity between women, becoming friends with lesbians, having romantic feelings between women, and holding hands between women. The feeling towards sexual activity is the most negative. Finally, we compared the averages among feelings towards sexual activity between men, becoming friends with gay men, having romantic feeling between men, and holding hands between men. The analysis shows that the feelings towards sexual activity and holding hands are the most negative, and romantic feeling the most positive.

Discussion: The findings that feeling towards ambiguous gender identity is the most negative and SRS the most positive suggest that transgender people that had SRS are accepted due to their fitting into the gender binary, whereas people who have ambiguous gender identity aren’t accepted due to their failing to fit into the binary. Although the feeling of rejection towards male homosexuality is stronger than that towards female homosexuality, it also suggests that gay men tend to be associated more with sexual matters than lesbians.