Editing Homosexuality in Japan (section)

=== Rejection of homosexuality ===
Eventually Japan began to shift away from its tolerance of homosexuality, moving towards a more hostile stance toward ''nanshoku'' and homosexual practices more generally. For instance, the [[Ministry of Justice (Japan)|Ministry of Justice]] passed a [[sodomy law]] in 1873 criminalizing homosexual practices, termed the {{nihongo|''keikan''|鶏姦}} code. This code had the effect of criticizing an act of homosexuality without actually criticizing ''nanshoku'' culture itself, which at the time was associated with the samurai code and masculinity. The ''keikan'' code came to be more apparent with the rise of groups of delinquent students that would engage in so called {{nihongo|''chigo''|稚児}} battles. These groups would go around assaulting other students and incorporate them into their group, often engaging in homosexual activity. Newspapers became highly critical of these ''[[bishōnen]]''-hunting gangs, resulting in an anti-sodomy campaign throughout the country.<ref name=":0" />

[[Sexology]], a growing field in Japan at the time, was also highly critical of homosexuality. Originating from Western thought, sexology was transferred to Japan by way of Meiji scholars, who were seeking to create a more Western Japan. Sexologists claimed that males engaging in a homosexual relationship would adopt feminine characteristics and would assume the psychic persona of a woman. They also claimed that homosexuality would degenerate into androgyny, in that the very body would come to resemble that of a woman with regard to such features such as voice timbre, growth of body hair, texture of hair and skin, muscular and skeletal structure, distribution of fatty tissues, body odor and mammary development.<ref name=":3">Pflugfelder, M. Gregory. 1999. "Cartographies of Desire: Male-Male Sexuality in Japanese Discourse, 1600- 1950": 256.</ref>

The only time homosexual sodomy (anal sex) has been banned in Japan was for eight years in 1872–1880 due to western influence.<ref>{{cite book |last= Tamagawa |first=Masami |author-link= |date= 2019|title=Japanese LGBT Diasporas: Gender, Immigration Policy and Diverse Experiences |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wte5DwAAQBAJ&dq=1872-1880+sodomy&pg=PA24 |location= |publisher=Springer Nature |page=24 |quote=The country's anti-homosexuality laws were gradually repealed between 1975 and 1997 (Carbery 2010).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.|isbn=978-3030310301}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Peakman|first= Julie |editor-last=McNeill |editor-first= J. R.|editor2-last=Pomeranz |editor2-first= Kenneth |author-link= |date=2015 |title= The Cambridge World History: Volume 7, Production, Destruction and Connection 1750–Present, Part 2, Shared Transformations?|chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OBuzCAAAQBAJ&dq=1872-1880+sodomy&pg=PT144|location= |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page= |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 ...|isbn=978-1316297841|chapter=4 Continuities and change in sexual behavioour and attitudes since 1750 }}</ref>

Ming dynasty China banned homosexual sodomy (anal sex) in the [[Ming Code]] since the Jiajing emperor's reign and continued into the Qing dynasty until 1907, when western influence led to the law being repealed.<ref>{{cite book |volume=3 |series=China Beyond the Headlines |last=Kang |first=Wenqing |editor1-last=Weston|editor1-first= Timothy B. |editor2-last=Jensen |editor2-first=Lionel M. |date= 2012|title= China in and beyond the Headlines|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SgBrkN4WY6MC&dq=jijian+100+sodomy&pg=PA234 |edition=illustrated |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |page=234 |quote=Jijian (Sodomy or Anal Sex between Males) In twentieth-century China homosexuality could be narrowly understood as ... stipulating that "whoever inserts his penis into another man's anus for lascivious play shall receive 100 blows of the ... |isbn=978-1442209060|chapter=11 The Decriminalization and Depathologization of Homosexuality in China}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Bao|first=Hongwei  |author-link= |date= 2020|series=Literary Cultures of the Global South|title= Queer China: Lesbian and Gay Literature and Visual Culture under Postsocialism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TbfjDwAAQBAJ&dq=jijian+100+sodomy&pg=PT54 |location= |edition=illustrated|publisher=Taylor & Francis |page= |quote=4 The Chinese term jijian is not exactly equivalent to the English term 'sodomy'. ... Ming and Qing criminal laws made hetongjijian (consensual sodomy) an offence that involved a punishment of '100 strokes of heavy bamboo' because it ...|isbn=978-1000069020}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last= Tin|editor-first= Louis-Georges|others=Translated by Marek Redburn |date=2008 |title= The Dictionary of Homophobia: A Global History of Gay & Lesbian Experience|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=aK02DwAAQBAJ&dq=jijian+100+sodomy&pg=PT126|location= |publisher= arsenal pulp press|page= |quote=These laws were designed to address not only the kidnapping and rape of male youths (which may or may not cause their death), but also consensual sodomy (jijian). Those convicted of these crimes were punished by 100 strokes of a cane ...|isbn=978-1551523149}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |volume = 1 of Queer Asia|last= Kang |first=Wenqing |author-link= |date=2009 |title= Obsession: Male Same-Sex Relations in China, 1900-1950|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h3UgBAAAQBAJ&dq=jijian+100+sodomy&pg=PA94 |location= |publisher= Hong Kong University Press|page=94 |quote=... shall receive 100 blows of the heavy bamboo, in application by analogy of the statute 'pouring foul material into the mouth ... “the statute quoted above never mentions jian at all, let alone the Qing legal term for sodomy, jijian. |isbn=978-9622099814}}</ref> 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}} During [[World War II]], straight Japanese soldiers were documented to forcing gay people into sexual slavery in lands occupied by Japan, and forcibly turning some gay natives into "[[comfort women]]" and prisoners.<ref>Alegre, B. R. (2022). From Asog to Bakla to Transpinay. Alon: Journal for Filipinx American and Diasporic Studies, 2(1), 51-64</ref>