LGBTQ+ in Japan: A Case Study in the Northern Kyushu region

The situation of LGBTQ+ people has evolved exponentially worldwide during the last twenty years, attracting the interest of numerous researchers who decided to analyse these changes from various perspectives: social, economic, legal, etc. This kind of research is important, not only from a historical point of view, but it could also help these people feel more represented and understood by society, especially at a young age. Studying their situation, understanding how they feel, and identifying their problems can help evolve society and make it more inclusive. Also, thanks to these studies, more LGBTQ+ inclusive education has recently started to be taught in all grades of education, from kindergarten to universities, making their situation more known and helping young LGBTQ+ people feel less confused or embarrassed about themselves. Even considering this, many places have not been the object of an intense academic investigation, like Fukuoka, Nagasaki, and Oita, all cities on the northern side of Kyushu Island in Japan. About these areas, until now, only studies about the male gay community in Fukuoka have been conducted, leaving the rest of the homosexual people and the other regions still in the shadows (Zhang, 2019). For this reason, this thesis will concentrate on the results of a questionnaire distributed all around Kyushu between the last months of 2024 and the early months of 2025, and the interviews with the presidents of the most important LGBTQ+ associations in Fukuoka. All of this to represent how LGBTQ+ people live their gender and sexuality in correlation to the society’s stigma, in their personal life and working ones, their thoughts and feelings about how this influences their life, in specific in Fukuoka, one of the cities that has recognized same-sex partnerships in Japan for the longest (April 2018), and the differences with the near smaller cities of Nagasaki and Oita. This research also intends to study what LGBTQ+ people and associations do to change the law or society to feel more accepted. In order to better understand the society stigmas and the laws, this thesis will also provide a summary of the LGBTQ+ history, starting from the global situation, to then concentrating more on the Japanese one, ending with the research results. This kind of approach is intended to help bring up differences between what happens in Fukuoka, Nagasaki, and Oita, and not only the rest of Japan, but also different parts of the world.