In Rare Move, Japanese Pop Star Comes Out Publicly as Gay
nytimes.comAt first, there was total silence. Then, there were shrieks, wild applause, weeping and shouts of “I love you!” Fans of Shinjiro Atae, a J-pop idol who has been on a nearly two-year performance hiatus, had come to hear him talk about “the challenge of my life.” Standing onstage in a dark auditorium in front of 2,000 fans in central Tokyo on Wednesday night, he revealed something he has kept hidden for most of his life: He is gay. “I respect you and believe you deserve to hear this directly from me,” he said, reading from a letter he had prepared. “For years, I struggled to accept a part of myself.
But now, after all I have been through, I finally have the courage to open up to you about something. I am a gay man.” Such an announcement is extremely unusual in conservative Japan, the only G7 country that has not legalized same-sex unions.
Earlier this summer, the Japanese Parliament passed an L.G.B.T.Q rights bill but it had been watered down by the political right, stating that there “should be no unfair discrimination” against gay and transgender people.
In making a public declaration, Mr. Atae, who spent two decades performing with AAA, a hit Japanese pop group, before embarking on a solo career, said he wanted his fans to know his true self.
