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The new documentary Queer Japan, which premieres December 11th in virtual theatres and on-demand, features trailblazing artists, activists, and everyday people from across the spectrum of gender and sexuality in Japan.
Culled from over 100 interviews conducted over three years, this kaleidoscopic exploration of queer Japanese culture reveals LGBTQ+ people defying convention with unconventional lives. Travel across Japan to meet dozens of unique characters including, iconoclastic drag queen Vivienne Sato, erotic manga artist Gengoroh Tagame, councilwoman Aya Kamikawa (the first transgender elected official in Japan), and nonbinary performance artist Saeborg who uses rubber to create a second skin for kink parties.
See Japan in a whole new light. Meet some of the film's subjects in the slide show below.
Poster artwork by Sophia Foster-Dimino.
Some of the film's LGBTQ+ cast, from back left Atsushi Matsuda, Gengoroh Tagame, Akira the Hustler, Tomato Hatakeno, Hiroshi Hasegawa, and Nogi Sumiko.
Photo by Hiroyuki Takenouchi.
Queer Japan's director Graham Kolbeins is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, and designer living in Los Angeles. He's the queer-identified director of the short film The House of Gay Art, and the co-director, with Dorian Wood, of the short film PAISA. His documentary web series, Rad Queers, profiled subjects including trans artist Edie Fake and Latinx leather organization Payasos L.A. A recipient of a Japan-U.S. Friendship Commision 2016 Creative Artists Exchange Fellowship, Kolbeins spent five months directing the feature-length documentary Queer Japan.
Along with Chip Kidd and Anne Ishii, Kolbeins is also the co-editor of two books on Japanese gay art: The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame and Fantagraphics’ Eisner-nominated anthology, Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It. The team also collaborated on Koyama Press’ English-language edition of What Is Obscenity?, a graphic memoir by Rokudenashiko chronicling her arrest on obscenity charges for making 3D printed vagina art.
Kolbeins is the co-founder and creative director of the apparel brand MASSIVE GOODS, a fashion brand, publisher, and creative agency representing queer and feminist artists from Japan including manga artists Jiraiya and Gengoroh Tagame in collaborations with global fashion brands Opening Ceremony and Mishka NYC.
As a videographer, Kolbeins has worked with a number of acclaimed performance and multimedia artists including Ron Athey, Cassils, Fanaa, and Rafa Esparza; musicians San Cha and Dorian Wood; and playwright Virginia Grise. His latest web series, Stretching with Graham Kolbeins, features the filmmaker on a pink yoga mat and exists "at the nexus of fitness, body positivity, and political discourse."
Photo by Paul Sepuya.
Writer, magazine editor, and activist Hiroshi Hasegawa shaped gay culture in the '90s and put a spotlight on HIV through Badi and G-men magazines, working alongisde GengorohTagame. Today, Hasegawa is a community leader and an advocate for those living with HIV through the nonprofit organization JaNP+.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins
Artist, film critic, and drag queen Vivienne Sato eschews identity labels and is known for bold blue lipstick and towering wigs. “I suppose I want it a little — for people to complain, to say something. I want to be the noise, you know?”
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Butoh dancer Atsushi Matsuda began his creative journey as a drag queen in Kyoto’s inclusive queer scene, going by the name of Cherry Vanilla. As his drag became more conceptual and genre-defying, he found a new sense of belonging in the celebrated butoh troupe Dairakudakan.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Kano Dokumurasaki at the legendary underground Tokyo fetish party Department H.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Gay erotic artist Gengoroh Tagame is known around the world for his hardcore BDSM-themed manga, and G-men, the seminal gay magazine he co-edited in the 1990s. These days, Tagame has hit the mainstream with his first family-friendly manga, the sensitive family drama My Brother’s Husband (Volume 1 and 2)
Contemporary artist, bartender, and activist Akira the Hustler works to create social change with the intersectional activist group Tokyo No Hate, taking on anti-Korean hate groups in a series of contentious counter-protests.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
At the FTM party Grammy Tokyo.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Simone Fukayuki, drag queen of the West, serving looks in Osaka.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
The queer Club Explosion in Osaka, Japan.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Nonbinary performance artist Saeborg creates (and performs in) a rubber second skin as a pig, part of the underground rubber fetish scene (rubber furries).
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Transgender activist and video game guide book author Tomato Hatakeno is a powerful voice advocating for understanding and equality. She moved from from sex work to advocacy in the mid-90s, when she began her long-running website for the trans community, Transgender Cafe.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Multimedia artist Nogi Sumiko embraces ambiguities of identity, and channels her outsider status into irreverent art pieces, performing as a mischievous sheep that refuses to follow the flock.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
In April 2003, Aya Kamikawa became the first out transgender person elected to public office in Japan.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
Still from Queer Japan courtesy of Graham Kolbeins.
