News Pop Star Shinjiro Atae comes out as gay (1 Viewer)

[Magician]

“I don’t want people to struggle like me,” said Shinjiro Atae, making an announcement that is extremely unusual in conservative Japan.


At first, there was total silence. Then, there were shrieks, wild applause, weeping and shouts of “I love you!”
Fans of Shinjiro Atae, a J-pop idol who has been on a nearly two-year performance hiatus, had come to hear him talk about “the challenge of my life.” Standing onstage in a dark auditorium in front of 2,000 fans in central Tokyo on Wednesday night, he revealed something he has kept hidden for most of his life: He is gay.
“I respect you and believe you deserve to hear this directly from me,” he said, reading from a letter he had prepared. “For years, I struggled to accept a part of myself. But now, after all I have been through, I finally have the courage to open up to you about something. I am a gay man.”
Such an announcement is extremely unusual in conservative Japan, the only G7 country that has not legalized same-sex unions. Earlier this summer, the Japanese Parliament passed an L.G.B.T.Q rights bill but it had been watered down by the political right, stating that there “should be no unfair discrimination” against gay and transgender people.

In making a public declaration, Mr. Atae, who spent two decades performing with AAA, a hit Japanese pop group, before embarking on a solo career, said he wanted his fans to know his true self. He also hopes to comfort those who might be grappling with anxieties about their sexuality.
“I don’t want people to struggle like me,” he said.


Activists said they could not recall an instance when a Japanese pop star of his stature had publicly declared they were gay, because of anxieties about losing fans or sponsors.
“I think he has decided to come out in order to change Japan,” said Gon Matsunaka, a director and adviser to Pride House Tokyo, a support center for the gay and transgender community.
Mr. Atae, who began dancing with AAA when he was just 14, said he has been preparing for — and fearing — this public coming-out for years.

For most of his performing life, “I thought if I was found out, it would end my career, and so I couldn’t tell anyone,” said Mr. Atae during an hour-and-a-half interview the day before his announcement at the apartment of his elder sister in western Tokyo, where he sat on a lime green straw mat in a gray T-shirt and baggy black faux leather shorts.


The decision to open up about his sexuality, he said, evolved over seven years of living in Los Angeles, where he saw how freely gay couples could show affection in public and built an extensive support network.

“Everyone was so open,” he said. “People would talk about their vulnerabilities. In Japan, people think it’s best not to talk about those things.”

Gay and transgender performers who regularly appear on television do not talk explicitly about their sexuality.

“Japanese society is not a place where people strictly state their sexuality,” said Satoshi Masuda, a researcher specializing in Japanese popular music at Osaka City University. “Rather, it naturally comes to be known.”

Mr. Atae, the youngest of three children, grew up in a town between Kyoto and Osaka.
His mother insisted that he play baseball until the end of elementary school. Sticking with it, she told him, would teach him “gaman” — the Japanese word for endurance.
When he discovered a local hip-hop dance studio, the discipline became an instant passion. “I just thought: ‘This is it,’” he said.


credit and rest of the article

 

[Magician]

really brave move from him and happy that his fans reacted so understanding
even his old group member came to support him

 

[Day]

 

[Ahsoka]

Glad that the response was positive but I'm curious about this part.

“Japanese society is not a place where people strictly state their sexuality,” said Satoshi Masuda, a researcher specializing in Japanese popular music at Osaka City University. “Rather, it naturally comes to be known.”

I think this can be true in some places but I feel like it has to be not as common as this would seem. After all, for many many places it's not a type of place where people wonder about strangers sexualities (barring people thinking someone looks or acts outside the norm. Those can be common enough yes). But for most places I feel like you just assume someone's straight unless their sexuality is stated or you see pda between two men/two women/some "unconventional" pairing. This isn't without reason, the majority of people are straight. I don't know, just the wording and how this sounds is off to me, because while I don't live in Japan I have a hard time imagining that LGBT people are able to be out and happy and dating/transitioning and whatnot without having to make declarations that they don't "fit the norm" in others eyes.