Hi. Honestly, I think I am a little out of my depth here. I somehow managed to convince myself and others that I was a good enough writer to contribute to the Lambda blog, and it doesn’t seem like I’m in the position to back out now. So, I’ll say again, hi.
Originally, I wanted to go big for this first post. It felt like it should be about some noteworthy current event or opinion of mine. I was planning on writing about the state of LGBT rights in Japan as of now – for context, Japan passed a controversial anti-discrimination bill a couple days ago – but it seems like I would have to do a bit more research before I feel comfortable heading into that topic (hopefully, you can expect some blog posts on it in the coming weeks).
So, instead of dealing with heavy stuff that I am not sufficiently equipped to write about on the Internet just yet, let’s talk about the differences between Pride holidays in Japan and other parts of the world.
For those who may not know, Japan’s biggest LGBT celebration is Tokyo Rainbow Pride (TRP) and takes place throughout late April and early May. Tokyo Rainbow Pride offers a wide range of events, social gathering, and activities to celebrate the LGBT community in Japan. The biggest and most famous of the TRP events is the festival in Yoyogi Park, Shibuya, and its annual parade. (Our team also participated in these two events so if you are interested, see the photos in our gallery!)
Some of the Lambda team at Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2023!
Meanwhile in other countries, most Pride celebrations take place in June in honour of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. While this is also somewhat true in Japan, due to how large-scale TRP is, many Japanese people consider that period to be the Pride holiday rather than June. If you walk around the busy areas of Shibuya during April and May, you’ll notice a lot more shops putting out rainbow flags around their window displays and pedestrians carrying colourful tote bags blazoned with rainbow motifs.
There seems to be no proper answer as to why TRP takes place a month shy from Pride month (probably was just for the sake of convenience). Personally, I find that the difference in periods allows me to appreciate many of the LGBT events in Tokyo without worrying too much about the heavy rains and unexpected weather phenomena we get in June.
This was kind of a sloppy entry, but I needed to get something written to start us off. Hopefully you can expect more interesting entries as we get the hang of all this!
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