The New York Times is pushing for Japan to embrace same-sex marriage, because the samurai allegedly engaged in same-sex liaisons “regularly” and Kabuki theater can involve cross-dressing.
In a lengthy article to accompany the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, the NYT railed against the relatively conservative, low-diversity country for being the only G7 member which has not legalized same-sex marriage, claiming it enjoys “overwhelming” support among the general public.
The NYT begins by taking aim at Shinto, the country’s ancient animist folk religion. It asserts that “the Shinto faith is not so much a spiritual practice as a cultural one” for “millions” of Japanese and that it has “no official dogma or scripture” – although Shinto does in fact have holy books, chiefly the Kojiki (‘Records of Ancient Matters’).
On this basis, the American newspaper bemoans the fact that what is described as “a national Shinto association” has “tried to spread a conservative ideological message among lawmakers, including on gay and transgender rights,” as if it has no Shintoist grounds for doins so.
At no point is it made clear that the group in question represents almost all of Japan’s 80,000 shrines, and so likely has a better grasp on whether progressive politics is compatible with Shinto values, which put a strong emphasis on the traditional family, than the NYT.
Indeed, the newspaper relies on Gary Leupp, an American academic, to claim that “samurai men regularly engaged in same-sex partnerships” during the Tokugawa period, before asserting that the “Kabuki and Takarazuka theatrical traditions embrace fluid gender identities”.
As with claims that Ancient Greece was awash with and accepting of homosexual relationships, however, this may be a skewed reinterpretation of Japanese culture, given the fact the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology only announced it no longer regarded homosexuality as a mental illness in 1995, for example.
Moreover, as recently as 2015 a survey by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research found that some 72 per cent of Japanese would feel “displeased” or “somewhat displeased” if they discovered their child was homosexual, appearing to contradict the suggestion that homosexuality has been considered normative for hundreds of years.