Ten years ago, this exhibition would have been impossible,” my guide Masaki Uotani tells me.
We are in a small room in Tokyo admiring the homoerotic art of gay artist Moriuo, who is hosting a four-day pop-up show. He is displaying his salacious pieces and selling postcards featuring naked male figures in his distractive cute manga style. Not all of his work is risqué; he regularly makes comics and art featuring cute couples, and toiletries brand Lush has commissioned him to produce a piece featuring two grooms with the words “Freedom of marriage for everyone.”
Masaki explains that in the past 10 years, the image of LGBTQ+ people in Japanese society has changed significantly. One of the biggest displays of this shift was Netflix’s 2024 gay dating show The Boyfriend, which showed Japanese men in a kind and positive light and became a hit in both Japan and the UK.