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Intimate Partner Violence Among Sexual Minorities in Japan: Exploring Perceptions and Experiences

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 56; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00918360802623123

1540-3602

Anthony S. DiStefano,

Intimate Partner and Family Violence

Abstract Using qualitative interviews (n = 39) and participant observation (n = 54), this study documents perceptions and experiences of violence between lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex intimate partners in Japan, thereby providing exploratory, formative data on a previously unexamined issue. Results indicate that intimate partner violence (IPV) is experienced physically, sexually, and psychologically in all sexual minority groups. Participants perceived the violence to be: a) very similar to heterosexual IPV against women; b) more likely perpetrated and experienced by lesbians, bisexual women, and transgender persons compared to gay and bisexual men and intersex persons; c) the cause of several negative physical and mental health outcomes; and d) largely unrecognized in both sexual minority communities and broader Japanese society. KEYWORDS: violencesexual minoritiesgaylesbiantransgenderintersexJapanabusequalitativehealth This study was supported by grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Government of Japan, and the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health. The author thanks Amie Ashcraft and Alexis Martinez for their helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript, and Marjorie Kagawa-Singer at UCLA, Masakazu Tanaka at the University of Kyoto, the Postwar Transgender Social History Research Group at Chuo University, Taku Hazeyama, Yuki Watanabe, Ayako Orikasa, Makiko Yoneyama, Julie Giang, and Susan Park for their assistance with this research. Notes 1. Intersex persons are defined as individuals for whom chromosomal sex is inconsistent with phenotypic sex, or for whom the phenotype is not classifiable as either male or female (CitationSax, 2002). 2. In the English-language literature, the term "sexual minority" is most often used to denote homosexual or bisexual orientation (see, e.g., CitationPeplau & Garnets, 2000). After consulting with sexuality scholars in Japan, the author chose to follow the Japanese convention of using "sexual minority" to describe also transgender and intersex persons in addition to gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals. In Japan, the term is used more frequently than various acronyms that are more popular in the United States (e.g., LGBTI). 3. Twenty (20) is the age of majority (i.e., adulthood, voting) in Japan. 4. Specific legal protections against discrimination for sexual minorities in Japan are nearly nonexistent, with three very localized exceptions: 1) transgender persons diagnosed with gender identity disorder (GID) in Yame City, Fukuoka Prefecture; 2) transgender persons with GID and intersex persons in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture; and 3) sexual minorities in Miyakonojo City, Miyazaki Prefecture (CitationMiyakonojo City Website, 2006; CitationSakai City Ordinance, 2002; CitationYame City Ordinance, 2004). Additionally, although the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has conceded that sexual minorities face "various problems" that require "much deeper discussion" (CitationYanagihashi, 2001), a draft bill on human rights protections for sexual minorities proposed by the Ministry of Justice has been rejected in the lower house of the National Diet three times to date (CitationTaniguchi, 2003, Citation2006).