-- Do you have any favorite gay movies?

Several. For one, I like "Torch Song Trilogy" (1988). Its gloomy ambiance at the beginning struck me as being very real. I's a film that stays with you after you watch it--not just in your head, but in your heart. Also, I love "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" (1994) and punchy entertainment films. "Maurice" (1987) and "Brokeback Mountain"(1987) were wonderful, too. But I guess if I had to pick one favorite, I’d choose "Torch Song Trilogy".

-- Are there any particular queer events or scenes that you'd like to go see?

I’d love to go see a massive event. Like, when I was living in New York City I only barely got to see the Gay Parade. I'd like to see that, or I’d like to go to the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade in Australia!

-- I’d love for you to report on it, for Japanese TV! (laughs)

Yeah, I’d like that too. (laughs)

-- In the Japanese gay scene there aren’t a lot of spaces for gay men and women to mix, but the last time I talked to you, you mentioned that you had a lesbian friend. In your view, what are lesbians like?

Lately I see a lot of lesbian couples walking around Nichome and I think it’s great! In society there are all these rules that dictate what a man should be and what a woman should be and I think more rules are applied to women than to men. So sometimes I worry that it may be harder for gay women to get by.

-- In Japan, not only are there very strong fixed ideas surrounding sexuality, but also surrounding sex and gender too.

Yes. But ultimately men can put up a fight, whereas women can’t. So, while I want to cheer lesbians on, really I’m a little worried. After all, if some woman came up to me in Nichome and threw herself on me I could get out of that situation, but if a women gets attacked by a guy, basically there’s not much she can do strength-wise.

-- But, to the contrary, I think guys are in a more dangerous position. If two guys get in a fight, it can really escalate into something violent. But if a guy had a problem with a woman, he couldn’t beat her up in public--as long as he wasn’t really nuts--so there’s kind of an escape. But I guess it can be seen either way.

Yeah, it sounds like we’re each a little worried for the other. (laughs)

-- You wrote on your blog that you get a bit irritated by questions like, “So, when did you turn gay?"

Yes. I get a lot of questions like that. Or people ask, “During sex, which are you [the woman or the man]?” Straight people here in Japan seem to want to know “which role” I am, but people in other countries don’t ask questions like that, right?

-- Yeah, not so much anymore. But I do think that there are still a lot of straight people everywhere who think that when you’re a gay couple, one plays “the man” and the other “the woman”.

Are there any questions that you’re sick of hearing?

-- Well, when I tell straight people that I like boyish girls, they usually respond with, “Then you don’t need to be with a lesbian, you can date a guy.” It just pisses me off! (laughs) No matter how boyish a girl may be, she’s still a girl underneath her clothes. (laughs) But usually people get my point when I explain it that way. (laughs)

Also, since I haven’t been with a woman, guys will often tell me, “Then why don’t you give it a try?” Usually I just say, “Sure, and you’ll try a guy too to see which is better for you, ok?” (laughs)

-- Exactly. (laughs) I’ve been told something along those lines too. When I first came out a friend told me, “You just haven’t met a guy good at sex yet.” I mean, come on! (laughs) Plus, that wasn't a very nice to say about the boy I had dated for 6 years! (laughs)

There are a lot of people who think women become lesbian, or are lesbian, because they’ve had some bad experiences with men.

-- There sure are, even though that’s so far from the truth! (laughs) I mean, if you’re a straight woman and you really have terrible experiences with men, at worst you’ll just decide to stop dating men. It’s so simplistic to say that they’d then “turn to women.”

translated by rayna