QAC 73 – 【Asexuality In JAPAN】An Interview ♠【アセクシャルって？】日本ｘ英語圏 || #AAW2018
Happy Asexual Awareness Week! I hope you, reader, are doing well. Last month, I had the pleasure of sitting down with two activists in Japan to shoot this interview about a topic that is pretty dear to me; that is, about the current state of the asexual community in Japan. It goes without saying that everything that’s said in the video is nothing but the experiences and opinions of three people and should NOT be mistaken as being representative of the experiences or opinions of everyone, but at the same time, who better to ask than two of the most active and dedicated people that I know in what is essentially the current hub for ace activity in Japan (Tokyo)? In this 23-minute and 10-question long (bear with me) interview, I sit down with 21 year old YouTuber, ace activist and friend, Nakaken of Seisei Doudou / 性性堂堂, as well…
landscapes and fissures: navigating ace terminology in Japanese & English
the following post was written for the May 2018 Carnival of Aces on the subject of “Nuance & Complexity“. it may or may not be cleaned up and cross-posted to the YouTube channel Queer As Cat in the future. —— some feel that people in (English-speaking, anglophone) ace communities are “overthinking” things. that the amount of words and identities (also referred to as “microlabels”) which have been coined in such communities is not only “overdoing it,” but even potentially harmful. i’d hope that this would go without saying (but understand that it doesn’t), that i disagree with the former and vehemently reject the latter. regardless of whether i or you or that random person over there petting the stray cat that’s out in the street right now feel such terminology to be useful to us personally, the fact remains that others do and there is immense value in that.
Ash Hardell’s “The ABC’s of LGBT+” in Japanese!
…..annnd look what i randomly* stumbled across at the bookstore tonight. Ash Hardell’s “The ABC’s of LGBT+” in Japanese! even Amazon Japan doesn’t seem to have it yet, but somehow Kinokuniya has it? which makes absolutely no sense, but hey! not complaining. it’s a complete translation of Ash Hardell’s book, including a lot of ace and non-binary terminology such as aceflex, quoiromantic, genderfluid and maverique transliterated phonetically into Japanese approximates.** even the [English] pronouns section is translated into Japanese, which i kinda have feelings about as to how helpful that and / or phonetic translations will be for Japanese people who will be approaching this book from a cultural and linguistic context that is not the same as that of a native English / germanic or romance language speaker. that said, at a glance, there does seem to be added explaination of English grammar to help non-English speakers better understand gender…
Q&A: “…is there are word for “aromanticism” in Japanese?”
livingxvxfaith said: Hi Vesper! I was wondering, is there are word for “aromanticism” in Japanese? For アセクシャル/アセクシュアル there’s アセクシュアリティー, but I can’t find an official Japanese noun companion for アロマンティック… hi. 🙂 ‘aromanticism’ is phonetically transcribed as アロマンティシズム in Japanese, but it’s very rare that i see anyone actually using that word. actually, even アセクシャリティ / ‘asexuality’ isn’t used often. outside of perhaps academia or writing where someone is discussing sexual orientation(s) in an abstract or objective way, it’s more common to use adjectives or adjective phrases… that is, if any distinction is even being made between ‘asexual(ity)’ and ‘aromantic(ism)’ at all. ……but anyway uhhhhhhh. yeah. アロマンティシズム is the word you’re looking for, although there’s nothing particularly ‘official’ about any of these words or language in general? unless we’re talking French or something.
Re: growing up and dealing with antiblackness in Japan [video]
queernigga: !!! So my friend sent me this video on growing up and dealing with antiblackness in Japan and it’s SO. REAL. It’s only in Japanese (sorry non-Japanese speakers). I encourage you to watch and share. For students of Japanese language – the dialogue is super clear and you might be surprised at how much you understand! 人権啓発ビデオ 「わたしたちが伝えたい，大切なこと ～アニメで見る 全国中学生人権作文コンテスト入賞作品～」（1/4）【差別のない世界へ】（字幕あり） i really like this up until the “you should make yourself vulnerable and explain yourself and your hurt feelings to your bully” and the subsequent, mildly offensive optimism of said bully responding with “oh geez, i never thought about or noticed your feelings. i’m sorry! i won’t do it again” bit– but eh. i’m a jaded as all fuck black gaijin living in Japan who has zero experience actually going through the Japanese school system as a student. i would say that. that aside, i do like this video. it’s easily the best…
Q&A: “So using “jibun” can work as a personal pronoun?”
anonymous said: hey i saw your post about how to say you’re NB in japanese and that’s super cool but i have a question. So using “jibun” can work as a personal pronoun? because i’ve seen it as such but i also thought it was closer to use it for the word “oneself” rather than a simpler “i” or “me”. Also it might mean “yourself” in kansai dialect or something? Could you expand on that if it’s not too much trouble? please and thanks ( re: this post ) 自分 (”jibun”) is a reflective pronoun that generally refers back to the person using it. how it translates into English is simply a matter of grammar (ie. what grammatical role it’s serving within a sentence). 例 / example: ※ 自分は別に納豆が嫌いなわけじゃないけどさ… JP： jibun wa betsu ni nattou ga kirai wake janai kedo sa… EN：it’s not like i particularly hate natto or anything, but… ※自分の誕生日さえも忘れちゃって、超恥ずかしい。…
Q&A: “what does Xジェンダー mean?”
anonymous said: Heya! Sorry to bother you, but what does Xジェンダー mean? Is it literally the Japanese translation of non-binary? Or has the same meaning? Thanks according to 「Xジェンダーって何?」, Xジェンダー (”x gender”) is: 性自認を表す言葉の一種で、出産時に割り当てられた男性もしくは女性の性別のいずれに二分された性の自覚を持たず、自己の性別に関し、男女どちらでもない、あるいは男女どちらでもある、さらにはそれすらもどちらでもないっといった認識を自己の性に対してもっている人々のことを指す日本独自の呼称です。 a word that refers to a gender identity; a term unique to Japan to refer to people who do not identify as either of the two genders, male and female, that are assigned at birth, but rather self-identifies as neither male nor female, both male and female or as a different gender entirely. while i don’t have any sources to link to at the moment, i’m fairly certain that Xジェンダー was coined in Japan completely independent of “non-binary” in the English language. in fact, i’m also fairly certain that it was coined before usage of “non-binary” in reference to gender in English, but again, no source links because i’m too tired to dig for them. either way, Xジェンダー is…
Q&A: “I just saw how to say you’re non-binary in Japanese and it was super exciting for me…”
anonymous said: Hi. I just saw the ask you answered about how to say you’re non-binary in Japanese and it was super exciting for me to see. I’m a non-binary teen living in Japan, and it’s amazing to see that because it’s a sign that there is an active community of non-binary people that is large enough for these words to exist. It’s wonderful. ( re: this post ) hello, anon. thanks for stopping by to drop me this ask because it’s exciting for me to hear that my post was able to reach someone like you. awesome! while awareness of Xジェンダー people still has a long way to go in Japan (as it does for non-binary people around the world), there definitely are active Xジェンダー people in Japan. in Japanese, many describe themself as MtX, FtX, Xジェンダー or any of the other terms i mentioned in the post that you…
Q&A: “Would you mind telling me some basic LGBT vocabulary in Japanese?”
hush-hush-little-heart said: Hi! I just found out about your blog, and I’d like to ask you something. I’m part of the LGBT community, and next year I’m going to study a Japanese Philology at the university. Would you mind telling me some basic LGBT vocabulary in Japanese? Just so I can understand and talk a bit about it, please ♡ (I’m a trans boy, and pansexual btw :3) oh also! (sorry i forgot to write it in the other ask) Do you know anything about getting hormones (testosterone, in my case) in Japan? Is it easy? Just in case, because I’d like to have a job/live there in a future, at least for some time hi. 🙂 sorry for taking so long to get to your asks. regarding LGBT terminology in Japanese, it’s a little hard to answer that question because it’s so broad…. so instead, i’m going to…
Q&A: “I’ve explained to my mom a couple of times what asexuality and aromanticism are and how they differ…”
buffintruda said: I’ve explained to my mom a couple of times what asexuality and aromanticism are and how they differ but she can’t remember. She’s very supportive of me being aroace so I don’t think it’s purposeful. Japanese is her first language so it might be better to explain in Japanese, but I can only speak English. I understand if you’re busy, and this isn’t too important, but if you have the time and energy, could you link a website that fully explains it or write your own explanation? Thank you! hi! sorry for taking so long to respond to your ask. i’ve decided to respond to it publicly because others may find the information in it useful, but i will gladly take the post down if you’d so prefer. just let me know. i don’t know whether your mom will find this easier to understand or not, but this…
