Edges of the Rainbow: LGBTQ Japan
A book of portraits from the diversity of contemporary LGBTQ culture and activism in Japan.
Interviews by Haruku Shinozaki.
Ai Haruna is a Japanese Pop Idol, a civil rights activist and a trans woman. She is the host of a popular television program
and is often a guest on other shows and on the radio
Ai Haruna performing at a concert in Osaka.
Ai Haruna, in the streets of Tokyo, being filmed while hosting a variety show.
Ai Haruna regularly visits the temporary housing of the displaced survivors of the Fukushima disaster,
whom, years after are still living in a trailer park in the Iwaki prefecture, offering them entertainment and small gifts.
Ai Haruna is surrounded by fans in Harajuku, a street popular with teenagers in Tokyo.
Most, if not all of her fans, are familiar with her personal history.
Ai with her mother and grandmother in the streets of the working class neighborhood of
Osaka where she grew up.
Keiki san, tarot card reader, community activist and trans man on the quay
of the Yokohama train station, a place of passage and destiny.
Keiki san and his friend S san, both trans men, in a nightclub in Yokohama.
As a child , Keiki was always playing with boys and referred to himself as male. As a teenager in his small rural village, he had no role models, knew of no one in the same situation and the closest internet cafe was a ninety minute drive away.
Keiki and friends in Ni-Chome, the LGBTQ area of Tokyo, in front of
Gold Finger, an all woman bar on its F to M night.
Keiki showering at home, in the northern city of Niigata, Japan.
Keiki, praying in the family cemetery plot of the garden in his growing-up house, in a small farming village in the north of Honshu,
the main island of Japan.
Apotheke, is an Electronic Dance Music band. When they are not performing in clubs, TV and on the radio, they live together in a loose communal arrangement in a farm in a country village and are active in its social life by organizing a yearly drag parade for the neighboring villages and by participating in the local tea harvest.
Shingo, the lead singer of Apotheke, preparing to go on stage at Batica, a club in Tokyo.
Robin, Shingo and Gosuke from Apotheke, going on stage for a national television show in Osaka.
As Nori san, its producer says: "We created Apotheke to be like a trojan horse, to allows us to enter pop
culture in order to change it."
Nori, the producer of Apotheke with Gosuke, its art director and dancer, during a business meeting
at the farmhouse that they share.
Reverand Yoshiki Nakamura, is a gay pastor.
"Being gay is fun. I know that reincarnation in not part of Christian belief, but if I were to be reborn,
I would be gay again"
Yoshiki and his partner K san in the hallway of Yoshiki's apartment building.
"We celebrated our civil partnership, officiated by a friend who is also a priest, but in the census we are not registered as legally married."
K san prefers to keep his identity private for professional reasons. They live separately for now, but only one building away.
Every Sunday, Yoshiki conducts a prayer and worship service for the LGBTQ community and their supporters.
His 'Church' is a ground floor conference room in an inexpensive motel in Ni-Chome, rented a few hours at a time.
Yoshiki at the pulpit.
Yoshiki, leading a group of college Gender Studies students on a historical tour of the Ni-Chome (LGBTQ) district of Tokyo.
Yoshiki, with college Gender Studies students, recalling how important theses book
and novelties shops in the Ni-Chome district were for him during his young adult years.
Yoshiki returning home on a rainy night, Tokyo.
Maika and Natsue in the subway returning from work. They are civil partners and live together, sharing an apartment
with Natsue's father, in Nerima, a suburb of Tokyo.
On a lazy Sunday afternoon, with a computer and a Haruki Murakami book.
While Maika has identified as a lesbian since she was twelve or thirteen, this is Natsue first relationship with a woman.
Lazy Sunday afternoon, in Nerima, a suburb of Tokyo.
Lazy Sunday afternoon, in Nerima, a suburb of Tokyo.
Maika and Natsue are giving a lecture about their life story, titled 'Be The Change', at the Chukyo University of Nagoya.
Tatsuki and Eishin, his wife, at home in Kyoto.
When Tatsuki (on the left), who is intersex, was born, the doctors designated her/him neither female nor male. During Tatsuki's junior
high school years (s)he was considered a girl or boy depending on the teacher, as an adult Tatsuki self-identifies as male.
Natsuko, on the left and Maeru are a couple and both are college professors in the Kyoto area. Maeru, who is deaf, teaches Japanese Sign Language and Natsuko, who is hearing, teaches interpretation of Japanese Sign Language. This is Natsuko's first time to have a relationship with a woman
Chiga at home
She is the owner of Gold Finger, a woman only bar in Ni-Chome, known for its successful productions of Woman-only shows, Drag King performances and F to M nights. Chiga wanted a place where women and women could find friendship and love, where they could be themselves.
Chiga outside of her bar, Gold Finger.
"I have very strong anarchist feelings.
I like to follow my own path, not the path that society dictates" ,
Chiga celebrating the 25th Anniversary of her bar.
Chiga, in the 'Green room', celebrating on the 25th anniversary of her bar.
Chiga sitting on top of the lap of a Robot girl, in Kabukicho, the red-light district in Tokyo.
Edges of the Rainbow: LGBTQ Japan
Portraits by Michel Delsol and Interviews by Haruko Shinozaki.
Commissioned by the Arcus Foundation with visual editing and design by Emerson Wajdowicz Studios and published by The New Press.
192 pages with over 150 color and black and white photographs. Available in Fine Bookstores and Amazon
Please click on image above for a short video trailer of Edges of the Rainbow: LGBTQ Japan
with Music by APOTHEKE