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Paper short abstract

This paper explores the complex relationship between gay and bisexual men and a heterosexual marriage system in Japan, with a particular focus on those who marry women while desiring other men. it opens new conceptualisation of marriage that cannot be reduced to a union of two persons.

Paper long abstract

This paper explores the complex relationship between gay and bisexual men and a heterosexual marriage system in Japan, with a particular focus on those who marry women while harboring romantic or sexual desires for other men. Historically, heterosexism has coerced many gay and bisexual men into conforming to societal expectations of heterosexual marriage. However, recent advancements in LGBTQ+ rights, particularly the legalization of same-sex marriage in many regions, have offered alternative pathways. Despite these progressive changes, this chapter argues that the gay rights movement, while empowering in many ways, inadvertently marginalizes married gay and bisexual men by prioritizing same-sex partnership as the normative ideal.

To illuminate this tension, this paper draws upon articles from Japanese gay magazines Barazoku and Badi, which document evolving attitudes toward heterosexual marriage and sexuality among gay and bisexual men in Japan. Additionally, it incorporates transcripts from interviews with former participants, including married gay men navigating dual identities and single gay men grappling with societal pressures. By analyzing these narratives, the study examines how discourses around same-sex partnership and heteronormativity impact individuals’ choices and the perceptions of their relationships. Finally, it focuses on the Japanese marriage advocacy specifically those promoting marriages between sexual minorities (in Japanese, called Yūjō Kekkon [friendship marriage]). Friendship marriages are also influenced by the tension between same-sex marriage/partnership and heterosexual marriage. By examining narrative found on the Web site of a pioneering friendship marriage agency in Japan, Karāzu[colours], the study maps out how men attracted to men, gay identity, and hetero- same-sex marriage intersect and relate to each other.

This study’s significance lies in connecting two areas rarely examined together: gay studies and mixed-orientation marriage. By foregrounding the experiences of gay and bisexual men, it opens new ways of thinking about hetero- and same-sex marriage that go beyond seeing it only as a choice between two spouses. This perspective also reveals how gay and bisexual men’s own discourses shape, contest, and reframe norms around marriage and desire, challenge (or be subject to) both heteronormative assumptions and dominant models of queer “liberation”.