LGBTQ culture in Tokyo

Stonewall provides educational awareness, useful information, communicative online platforms, and fellowship opportunities.

[4] The gay neighborhood of Ni-chōme,[5] Tokyo, came into existence following the rapid societal changes following the American occupation of Japan.

[9][10] In 1988, participants from the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme formed 'A Terribly Apropos Gay Organisation.

ATAGLO helped LGBT and JET participants initially by producing a newsletter, Between the Sheets, a directory for couch-surfing, and mentoring and counselling.

[11] In 1994, members of Gayjet, another group which eventually merged with ATAGLO, expressed their concern with CLAIR, the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations, for censoring and discriminating LGBT+ voices within the community[4] The now-merged ATAGLO started to work on a proposal so that they could become Special Interest Group (SIG) of AJET, a sub-organisation handling support and communities.

The purpose of this group was to be in publications, become more aware in the media, building relationships with LGBT+ and JET members.

[4] In 1995, the group renamed themselves Stonewall, as CLAIR stated they would stop funding AJET if the word "Gay" was in an organisation's name.

[4] Because of the rise in participants, Stonewall AJET became an organization due to the amount of help they received.

[12] In 2010, there was a decline of gay clubs and bars by a third due to construction near the Fukutoshin line increasing value in the area.

[3] Then, on August 17, 2012, it was banned to dance in clubs in Ni-chōme which is a popular district in Tokyo for the LGBT community.

In 2021 the government of Tokyo announced it would begin to offer legal unions for same sex romantic couples.

A number of other areas, such as Ueno, Asakusa, Shimbashi, and Ikebukuro, have conglomerations of gay bars, although none as dense as in Ni-chōme.

[16] Information about these bars, bookstores, sex shops, and cruising spots can be found in the Otoko-machi Map (Boy's Town Map), a country-wide guide to Japanese gay establishments, or in monthly gay magazines like G-men and Badi.

The number of gay bars in 2013 (Lesbian bar not included)[17] Reference：Doyama(Osaka)-154, Sakae(Nagoya)-63, Fukuoka-62, Namba(Osaka)-42, Noge(Yokohama)-37, Susukino(Sapporo)-32, Nagarekawa (Hiroshima)-30, Sakurazaka(Okinawa)-26, Shinsekai(Osaka)-25 The number of gay-related businesses: Bar, nightclub, host club, cruising box, sauna, gay book and video store, etc.

However, it occurred on a limited scale, as the 2020 and 2021 editions of the parade were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Tokyo.

[32] Many male artists have been coming out of the closet and speaking publicly about being gay on talk shows and other TV programs in Tokyo.