I met Hibino Makoto in Minneapolis at the 8th International Conference on Bisexuality last year. Expecting to meet people from distant countries, coming from very different cultural backgrounds, I saw a long-haired person wearing a large pink skirt and a hat. That was him. I thought "him" after observing a while. But, anyway, who cares? At this point I was just trying to challenge my mental boundaries and find interesting stories to tell.

Makoto San, what would you say about the differences and similarities between bisexuality in Japan and in the so-called West?

I think that the special features of us Japanese are that we do not need to have strong bi identity like in the Western GLBT movement. Not a small number of people have bisexual behavior, and they can live without coming out as bisexuals.

The first reason is our historical and ethnic background. Before Japan started to import Western/Christian culture around 1867, it was common -- at least for men -- to have sex with both male and female, within both high- and low-class society. As our country westernized, people and our culture came to think of same-sex relationships as abnormal.

The second reason is the Tennou system (Japanese-style emperor) that affects our daily life very much. This is not only a political matter, but also a kind of religion in our society. The Tennou system means that people want to think as if all Japanese are a family, customarily tending to follow authority.

Here almost all queers feel as if they were strangled with silk floss, tormented at a low intensity. If someone queer has enough pride and is strong enough to come out publicly, then that person becomes a kind of authority. But this is very unusual. In contrast, there are people who feel forced to kill themselves.

This is another reason for not having any strong sexual identity, even though bisexual behavior and so-called "bi curiosity" is not so rare in Japan now.

But we need to stand up and say something. That is because the imported gay and lesbian civil-rights movement is trying to build a gay and lesbian identity and pride, also bringing to us an acceptance of the binary gender system of the Western Christian culture. From these people's point of view, bisexuality should be passed.

You mentioned the cultural heritage of Japan, your historical and ethnic background.

There are not enough studies about women, but historically speaking it was basically a normal behavior for Japanese men to have sex with both men and women. Maybe you know Ukiyoe -- Japanese traditional drawings. There are many Ukiyoe which paint men having sex with men.

Before around 1867, it was well-known that many of the Syogun (like a prime minister) had sex with both male and female. Before Western Christians criticized Japanese public baths, there was a common culture of taking it with mixed-gender people for the purpose of cleaning the body and relaxing, not for sex.

In old days the temples were very famous place where Buddhist monks, mostly male, had sex with younger boys.

Around 1900, having same-sex relationships became illegal in Japan because of Western influence. That broke the Japanese tradition.

I think that at least in Japan and Thailand there is a long historical and social culture of queer people and queer community. There have always been spaces within the society at large for gender queers. Now we can find many queer people in the mainstream TV programs, for instance.

We still have our own unique traditional Japanese word -- okama -- which means those who are out of the binary gender system, including gay men, bi men, MTF or MTX transgenders and others. Okama, and onabe, is like the word queer.