Editing Homosexuality in Japan (section)

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[[File:Client Lubricating a Male Prostitute Shunga by Kitagawa Utamaro 1790s.png|thumb|[[Kitagawa Utamaro]], "Client Lubricating a Prostitute" (while another peers through), late-eighteenth-century print, F. M. Bertholet Collection]]

Records of [[men who have sex with men]] in [[Japan]] date back to ancient times. Western scholars have identified these as evidence of '''homosexuality in Japan'''. Though these relations had existed in Japan for millennia, they became most apparent to scholars during the [[Tokugawa period|Tokugawa (or Edo) period]]. Historical practices identified by scholars as [[homosexual]] include {{nihongo||衆道|''shudō''}}, {{nihongo||若衆道|wakashudō}} and {{nihongo||男色|''nanshoku''}}.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Changing Nature of Sexuality: The Three Codes Framing Homosexuality in Modern Japan|last=Furukawa|first=Makoto|pages=99,100, 108, 112}}</ref>

The Japanese term {{nihongo||男色|nanshoku|which can also be read as ''danshoku''}} is [[on'yomi|the Japanese reading of the same characters in Chinese]], which literally mean "male colors". The character {{lang|ja|色}} ({{lit|color}}) has the added meaning of "[[lust]]" in both China and Japan. This term was widely used to refer to some kind of male-to-male sex in a pre-modern era of Japan. The term {{nihongo||衆道|shudō|abbreviated from {{transliteration|ja|wakashudō}} {{lang|ja|若衆道}}, "the way of adolescent boys"}} is also used, especially in older works.<ref name=":0" />

During the [[Meiji period]] ''nanshoku'' started to become discouraged due to the rise of [[sexology]] within Japan and the process of [[westernization]]. However, during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] and [[World War II]] the Chinese mocked and insulted [[Puyi]] and the Japanese as homosexuals and presented it as proof of their perversion and being uncivilized.{{sfn|Kang|2009|pp=100, 101}} The only time homosexual sodomy has been banned in Japan was for a short time in 1872-1880 due to western influence.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tamagawa |first=Masami |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wte5DwAAQBAJ&dq=1872-1880+sodomy&pg=PA24 |title=Japanese LGBT Diasporas: Gender, Immigration Policy and Diverse Experiences |date=2019 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3030310301 |location= |page=24 |quote=The country's anti-homosexuality laws were gradually repealed between 1975 and 1997 (Carbery 2010). ... Japan never had a sodomy law, except the so-called Keikanh ̄o (1872–1880), which exclusively prohibited anal intercourse. |author-link=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Peakman |first=Julie |title=The Cambridge World History: Volume 7, Production, Destruction and Connection 1750–Present, Part 2, Shared Transformations? |date=2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1316297841 |editor-last=McNeill |editor-first=J. R. |location= |page= |chapter=4 Continuities and change in sexual behavioour and attitudes since 1750 |quote=Prohibition of homosexuality has continued into the twentyfirst century in some places with criminal penalties, ... Homosexuality has never been illegal in Japan except for a short time from 1872– 1880, and although civil rights are not ... |author-link= |editor2-last=Pomeranz |editor2-first=Kenneth |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OBuzCAAAQBAJ&dq=1872-1880+sodomy&pg=PT144}}</ref>

Modern terms for homosexuals include {{nihongo3|literally "same-sex-love person"|同性愛者|dōseiaisha}}, {{nihongo3|"kettle"/"cauldron", 
slang interchangeably used for gay men, drag queens, gender nonconforming men and transgender women|お釜|okama}},<ref name="Mandelin 2020">{{cite web |last1=Mandelin |first1=Clyde |title=The Japanese Word "Okama" in Video Game Translations |url=https://legendsoflocalization.com/okama-in-game-translation/ |website=Legends of Localization |access-date=7 October 2022 |ref=Mandelin 2020 |date=14 February 2020}}</ref> {{nihongo3|gay|ゲイ|gei}}, {{nihongo3||ホモ|homo}} or {{nihongo3|"homosexual"|ホモセクシャル|homosekusharu}}, {{nihongo3|"pot"/"pan", 
slang for "gay women"|お鍋|onabe}}, {{nihongo3||ビアン|bian}}/{{nihongo3||レズ|rezu}} and {{nihongo3|"lesbian"|レズビアン|rezubian}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue3/mclelland2.html|title=Intersections: Male Homosexuality and Popular Culture in Modern Japan|website=intersections.anu.edu.au|access-date=8 April 2018}}</ref>