“I have been grateful that I can support the LGBT community as a straight individual and one of the executive members of an NPO for LGBT professionals here in Japan. At the beginning when I launched the organization with my friend, I was actually wondering how I should act as an ally and CEO to initiate our missions for the community. It’s not really common for a straight man to take action for sexual minorities in Japan, so seeing my social media posts of marriage equality and such, some people actually asked me “Are you actually gay?”
Now I am very happy many people, regardless of sexual orientation, come to our events to communicate and build connections. I believe such in-person networking events for LGBT and ally professionals should be held more often here since visibility of the community is scarce on the Internet; you rarely see a profile of a Japanese business person with a picture with a rainbow filter on Linked In.”

“It’s always great to have someone whom you can learn from about a world with which you are unfamiliar. My gay friend taught me to realize that being a sexual minority is not as special as I used to think it was. I believe the primary reason many Japanese people tend to treat sexual minorities with excessive care is because they often forget that their LGBT identity is secondary to who they are as a human being. It’s understandable they get easily overwhelmed because in Japan the concept is still new and “foreign”. But that’s why I think opportunities to actually learn about the community are in need now more than ever.”

“I heard historically some women started identifying themselves as lesbian as an adverse reaction to misogyny. Of course, as many claim, being LGBT is not a choice and I agree with them. This, however, does not necessarily rule out the idea that such ideology sometimes forms one's mind to believe (s)he is a sexual minority, and therefore they are sexual minorities. I'm saying this based on my experience; when I was in high school, I couldn’t really think of me in a relationship without physically being attracted to a girl. However, now I can see myself perfectly comfortable being in a very platonic relationship. Theoretically speaking I actually could have a same-sex partner if there is an emotional connection and he doesn’t expect me to be physically intimate with him. Some people would tell me "that's just a good friendship."
Ultimately, the question is whether physical attraction is a critical factor in defining your relationship and accordingly your sexual orientation. If so, I would then be considered heterosexual, but if not, I could be a part of the LGBT community and so are those women from history.”