When we finally arrived at the front door I tried to peak through the poster covered windows. To start, Okinawa’s one gay bar was extremely hard to find, hidden away on the third floor as if hoping no one would ever notice it – its sign barely visible from the street.Īs we ascended the stairs you could smell the years of cigarette smoke wafting off of the yellowed wallpaper, the dimly lit stairway barely wide enough for two people to pass one another. If this place was great, then we could enjoy the night together, and if it was terrible we could just move on to somewhere else – or so we thought. Can’t you get much gayer than that right?ĭespite the lack of options, we decided to go. Well, that is if you consider one gay bar “options”. After a quick Google search, I soon realized my options were slim. Its official Instagram account is available at ( ).Here I was in Okinawa, a small island isolated Japanese island with not much in the name of “gay nightlife”, but I had just arrived with a group of college friends and we were ready for a night out. He is worried about how it is being received by residents, but he wants to generate sympathy instead of forcing them to understand his views. He collaborated with beekeepers to develop products and worked with other local resources.Īspiring to become cool and beloved like those from the gay community he met in Spain, Tanaka decided to open the bar after his tenure as a member of the regional revitalization program expired. He started working under a program to promote the benefits of Yamaguchi. He decided to move to Yamaguchi because he wanted to live in an area along the Seto Inland Sea, which reminded him of Europe’s Mediterranean Sea. Gay Japan 2022, a national competition held to promote rights for gay men.Īfter being selected as one of six finalists last summer, Tanaka has thrown his energy into promoting understanding about sexual minorities on social media and through video-sharing websites. Tanaka came out soon after and participated in the Mr. He soon received a warm reply from his mother, who said she already knew. He sent a letter and a comic book titled "Uchi no Musuko wa Tabun Gay " (I think our son is gay) to his mother. Tanaka returned to Japan to settle down and when he turned 30, he made up his mind. However, it took time for him to come out to his family and friends back in Japan. He had suspected he was gay at the time, and his negative feelings about it soon melted way. He saw how people accepted being gay as part of their identity and that gay people were treated with respect. Tanaka had a life-changing experience while traveling around Spain after graduating from high school. He also believes that a good-natured town where all kinds of people are treated equally can help create a comfortable community for long-time residents as well. The owner wants to make the bar a gateway to learn about gay culture while customers enjoy drinking together. The bar welcomes any customers regardless of their sexual orientation, but he also intends to host events exclusively for gay people. So, I want it to be a more livable city for me," Tanaka said. "I love the historical climate of Yamaguchi so much. Tanaka himself once overheard someone who said it was hard to believe there were any sexual minorities in the city. The Yamaguchi city government has made little effort to implement such a system, saying that it is paying attention to how other municipalities are dealing with administrative matters when it comes to same-sex couples. The neighboring city of Ube remains the only municipality in Yamaguchi Prefecture that has introduced a partnership system to officially recognize same-sex couples and make them eligible for benefits and services. "Being an outsider to Yamaguchi, I want to put some fresh air in the city," he said. He said he gave the bar a straightforward name, the Tanaka Gay Kikaku (project), to make it clear that it is LGBT friendly.
He hopes it will help foster better understanding about sexual minorities. That was all the more reason for Tanaka, 32, to open a bar in the Yuda onsen hot spring resort in the city in March. YAMAGUCHI-Tokyo-born Aiki Tanaka loves the city of Yamaguchi, where he has lived since 2019, but as a gay man, he has always felt the community there is quite conservative.