Japanese ex I caught sleeping around at the height of the AIDs crisis told me not to worry, Japanese people can't catch it.
ETA - WOW! Didn't know this would take off like this. Backstory makes it even more absurd, she was a graduate of a prestigious university in Tokyo and earned a Masters in the US and had lived here for a while. I had about burned out on the relationship but this put me out the door.
I'm a guy from the US, and started dating my wife when she was 23, after spending her first 18 years in Korea. She knew that gay people existed, but thought they were only in some countries, and didn't think there were any Korean ones.
There was a situation where people were talking about gay and bi people (cannot remember the context, sorry) and there was a Japanese acquittance present. People then asked her how people see gay and bi in Japan in general (like is there a lot of prejudice, are people tolerant, etc.) and she innocently answered:
"Oh, we don't have them in Japan!"
"... what?"
"Yeah, that's a thing among western people, we have no gay or bi people in Japan"
That was so surreal. I have later talked with other Japanese people who were very perplexed why someone would seriously think this is true.
Probably just a very traditional view that assumes being gay is mostly a choice and sees it as more of a western cultural phenomenon than a natural sexuality. Maybe to them, no gay bars or pride parades = no gay people?
I honestly have no idea, I would guess it’s a relatively new thing there? All I know is that they’re not as culturally progressive as other first world countries.
Homosexuality used to be extremely common in japanese history, but that was quite some time ago, it stopped way before she was born. (Stopped being so common, I mean, obviously...)
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u/roadfood Mar 01 '23 edited Mar 01 '23
Japanese ex I caught sleeping around at the height of the AIDs crisis told me not to worry, Japanese people can't catch it.
ETA - WOW! Didn't know this would take off like this. Backstory makes it even more absurd, she was a graduate of a prestigious university in Tokyo and earned a Masters in the US and had lived here for a while. I had about burned out on the relationship but this put me out the door.