Quote Originally Posted by Meiki
About homosexuality, most of the younger generations don't mind homosexuality at all and aren't really sexually shy. They love to see their bishounen-stars getting it on with eachother. And the millions of fanfics can prove it. It probably depends on which place you are at in Japan.
The younger generations are more open and tolerant then their elders. That's what everything is about.
I agree that the younger Japanese are usually more open-minded than their elders (also less critical). But hentai manga isn't really the way to judge people's acceptance of homosexuality in real life ! Like in most Western countries, lesbians are more easily accepted than male gays in Japan, especially if they are bisexual (some men really fantasize women like that). But it's still a big no-no to admit yo are gay in Japan.

If you check "“ŻŠˆ¤" (homosexuality) on Amazon Japan, there is only one book !! Likewise, if you type "ƒzƒ‚ƒZƒNƒVƒ…ƒAƒ‹" (homosexual), there are only 3 books among the millions of Japanese publications available on Amazon. The keyword "ƒQƒC" (gay) gives 171 results.

In comparison, checking Amazon US, there are 1444 books for the keyword "homosexuality", 917 for "homosexual" and 10,097 for "gay" !

Even Amazon France (with a market half the size of Japan's) has 1147 books in French about "homosexualite", and 1540 books in French with the keyword "gay", a word used less often in French than in Japanese (you know, French people don't like using English words, but the Japanese just love it ).

Not that I care, but this gives us a good idea of how taboo homosexuality still is in Japanese society outside pornography.

Searching Google, I have found the following results for the above keywords :

- “ŻŠˆ¤ => 661
- ƒzƒ‚ƒZƒNƒVƒ…ƒAƒ‹ => 9,000

- homosexual => 3,790,000
- homosexuality => 3,690,000
- gay => 52,300,000

- homosexualite (with accent on the "e") => 433,000

Again, even anonymously on the web, the Japanese very rarely discuss or write about homosexuality.