‘Hostile atmosphere’ for queer students on Japanese campuses

Japanese universities have a long way to go in improving the environment for gay students, with most campuses currently viewed as “unfriendly” to them, a study has found.

Even as non-traditional sexual identities have gained more acceptance in Western society, with the higher education sector increasingly putting effort into creating a welcoming atmosphere, gay students overwhelmingly report “hostile” environments on Japanese campuses, according to findings published in the journal Higher Education.

“A large majority of Japanese lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ) students described their institutions as unfriendly or hostile to them,” writes the study’s author, Koji Ueno, a sociology professor at Florida State University.

Universities, known around the world for being home to a younger and generally more liberal demographic than society at large, have not proven particularly welcoming for LGBQ students in Japan, where gay people are less visible in society.

Professor Ueno spoke with 39 queer students from universities in four major metropolitan centres (transsexual students, who identify as straight, were not included in the study) and found a number of unwelcoming behaviours on campuses, with straight students gossiping about their non-heterosexual peers and sometimes attempting to “out” them.

While relatively small in size, the Japanese study is a rare look at how this minority group is treated in higher education in a non-Western context, an area in which research is scant, Professor Ueno said.

“There is a limited amount of LGBTQ research in Japan, compared to Western countries,” he noted.

“It is also possible that researchers cannot find enough LGBTQ students who are willing to participate in their research studies due to stigma,” he said, adding that past research had collected data indirectly, by talking to university staff who had contacts with gay students, rather than speaking to the students themselves.

He found that most Japanese LGBQ students preferred to keep their sexual identities private – a result that “strongly contrasted” with findings from a similar US study conducted by Professor Ueno, which highlighted “openness” about this on Western campuses.

Although many straight students gave the impression that they were outwardly supportive of queer people, this was perceived as a veneer by queer students, who were reluctant to come out about their identities.

Campus resource: Advice on creating a higher education system in which LGBTQ+ students, staff and faculty can thrive

As one interviewee put it: “My peers present themselves as accepting of sexual minorities in public conversations; but privately, they say that they are grossed out.”

Yet despite this undercurrent of intolerance among students, institutional resources, especially anti-discrimination policies, were uncommon in Japanese universities, with “only a small portion of participants” reporting access to these.

Currently, just 10 per cent of Japanese institutions have explicit guidelines to support queer students, according to the study. Universities are clearly lagging behind on enacting anti-discrimination rules, but many students are sceptical that policies alone will do much to change the situation, Professor Ueno noted.

He stressed that it was important for universities to facilitate frank conversations among students about gayness, but this should go hand in hand with greater awareness about the variety of sexual and gender identities within this category.

“Teaching the diversity within the LGBTQ community is important,” he said.

“LGBTQ people have different sexual and gender identities, and within each identity group, people differ in their self-presentations, attitudes and beliefs.”

pola.lem@timeshighereducation.com