Japan is the one nation amongst the world’s wealthiest democracies that has not legalized same-sex unions. Few celebrities are openly gay. Conservative teams oppose legislative efforts to guard the L.G.B.T.Q. group.
However now, Netflix is introducing the nation’s first same-sex relationship actuality sequence.
Over 10 episodes of “The Boyfriend,” which might be out there in 190 international locations starting on July 9, a gaggle of 9 males collect in a luxurious seaside home exterior Tokyo. The format evokes Japan’s hottest romantic actuality present, “Terrace House,” with its meeting of unpolluted reduce and exceedingly well mannered solid members, overseen by a panel of jovial commentators.
The vibe is healthful and largely chaste. The lads, who vary in age from 22 to 36, function a espresso truck throughout the day and cook dinner dinner at night time, with occasional forays exterior for dates. One of many greatest (amongst only a few) conflicts of the sequence revolves round the price of shopping for uncooked hen to make protein shakes for a membership dancer who’s attempting to take care of his physique. Intercourse hardly ever comes up, and friendship and self-improvement function as prominently as romance.
In Japan, the handful of brazenly homosexual and transgender performers who commonly seem on tv are usually flamboyant, effeminate comedian foils who’re shoehorned into exaggerated stereotypes. With “The Boyfriend,” Dai Ota, the manager producer, mentioned he wished to “painting same-sex relationships as they are surely.”
Mr. Ota, who was additionally a producer of “Terrace Home,” which was made by Fuji TV and licensed and distributed globally by Netflix, mentioned he had prevented “the strategy of ‘let’s embrace individuals who trigger issues.’”
“The Boyfriend,” he mentioned, represents variety in one other means — with solid members of South Korean, Taiwanese and multiethnic heritages.
Regardless of how Japan lags in L.G.B.T.Q. rights, Mr. Ota mentioned the present just isn’t meant to supply overt political or social commentary. Solid members weren’t suggested in opposition to talking in regards to the social challenges of being homosexual or bisexual in Japan, he mentioned, however throughout the audition course of, he reminded potential members that “finally it is going to be streamed, and a variety of viewers will be capable of hear these ideas.”
Soshi Matsuoka, the founding father of Truthful, an L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group in Tokyo who has watched the sequence, mentioned its mere existence “reveals a change within the society.” However he mentioned he wished the solid talked extra brazenly about their sexuality and the social context of the L.G.B.T.Q. group in Japan.
Whereas “The Boyfriend” could be the first same-sex actuality relationship present set in Japan, there are a rising variety of queer relationship reveals, together with “The Ultimatum: Queer Love,” additionally for Netflix; “I Kissed a Boy” and “I Kissed a Girl” on the BBC; “For the Love of DILFS,” out there on Apple TV+, and “His Man” in South Korea.
Taiki Takahashi, a homosexual mannequin and social media influencer who served as casting director on “The Boyfriend,” mentioned he had “a whole lot of expectation and hope” for the present.
“I gained’t say we are able to change society,” he mentioned in an interview at Netflix’s workplaces in Tokyo. “However I do need many individuals to really feel some sort of influence.”
About 50 males auditioned after Mr. Takahashi put out casting calls on social media and recruited from his personal networks. He mentioned he intentionally selected “individuals who can be cherished” and that he prevented males who “really feel the strain of ‘I’ve to turn into a sure character as a result of I’m going to be on TV,’ or ‘since I’m homosexual I’ve to behave homosexual.’”
The shadow of “Terrace House” inevitably hangs over “The Boyfriend.” They share the identical primary format and one of many commentators — Yoshimi Tokui — has returned to the studio the place he and a slate of tv personalities dissect the interactions between the boys on the present.
On the finish of the fifth season of “Terrace Home,” which turned a worldwide hit, one of many solid members, Hana Kimura, an expert wrestler in Japan, took her own life. She left a number of suicide notes and had posted ominous notes on Twitter and Instagram earlier than she died.
Her mom, Kyoko Kimura, has filed a lawsuit in opposition to Fuji TV and two different manufacturing corporations, accusing them of failing to guard her daughter from slanderous feedback and forcing her to behave on the present in a means that attracted mass criticism on-line. Ms. Kimura is in search of near $1 million in damages.
Mr. Ota mentioned Netflix has enlisted psychological well being professionals to seek the advice of with the solid and “to create a manufacturing setting the place nobody will get harm.” He mentioned Netflix had carried out background checks on every of the solid members and that after the present airs, “we’ll deal with them if they’ve even the slightest bit of hysteria.” Netflix didn’t make any of the solid members out there for an interview.
Though polls show that greater than 70 p.c of the Japanese public helps legalizing same-sex unions, homosexual and transgender persons are nonetheless topic to discrimination and hate speech.
Ms. Kimura, 47, mentioned in a video interview that she knew from her daughter’s expertise that younger individuals new to worldwide publicity “can’t think about what it could be like to truly obtain a whole lot or hundreds of slanderous feedback from all around the world a day.”
“The fact TV format itself is harmful,” she mentioned. “And particularly in Japan, the place few individuals have an in depth understanding of the existence of L.G.B.T.Q. individuals.”
Durian Lollobrigida, a drag queen who is without doubt one of the 5 commentators on “The Boyfriend,” mentioned he wished to hitch the present to assist “defend” the solid members.
“I believed it wouldn’t be good if heterosexual people who find themselves within the majority had been simply watching homosexual males mingle,” Mr. Lollobrigida, 39, mentioned. “So I believed it was essential for somebody to be there to behave as a translator.”
As soon as filming began, he mentioned, he grew comfy along with his fellow commentators and realized “I didn’t have to fret about this stuff.”
Even with out express political advocacy, the present might have a refined impact on social attitudes, Mr. Lollobrigida mentioned. “In an effort to get varied L.G.B.T.Q.+ rights, in fact elevating our voices and protesting is essential,” he mentioned. “However on the similar time, I believe it is very important normalize it by leisure.”
Whether or not the present lays the groundwork for eventual political change is questionable, mentioned Jennifer Robertson, a professor emerita of anthropology on the College of Michigan who has written frequently about L.G.B.T.Q. tradition in Japan.
She acknowledged that the candy, low-drama solid members might make for heartwarming viewing. In some ways, they provide an idealized distinction to “heteronormative {couples} who’re squabbling about kitchen cleanup and children,” Ms. Robertson mentioned. Certainly, a number of of them — not simply the skilled chef within the solid — seem like gifted residence cooks, and so they all work to maintain the home clear, qualities not usually related to most males in Japan.
But when the purpose was to encourage much less tolerant Japanese viewers to turn into extra accepting of homosexual and bisexual males, Ms. Robertson added, she puzzled whether or not such individuals had been more likely to watch a present like “The Boyfriend” anyway.
“Cutesification in a present to garner help amongst people who find themselves in all probability already supporting L.G.B.T.Q. just isn’t going to be a push in any course towards political ratification of homosexual marriage,” she mentioned.