The Truth About Kanji Tatsumi (Gender Norms, Queer-ness in Japanese Context // Persona 4 Analysis)

so in this video we'll be taking a deep dive look into kanji within Japanese context especially in regards to the social cultural understanding of gender Norms as well as queer issues from historical times past all the way to 21st century Japan hey guys I'm lady and as someone of Japanese Heritage I find much purpose and enjoyment in breaking down the cultural influences of the modern Persona games so be sure to check out all my other analyses but before we really get into it here's a heads up about the structure of this video so although there will be multiple chapters timestamped overall I'd like this analysis to feel like it split into two main sections with the commentary on gender expectations and expression first and the handling of sexual orientation second also unlike my previous persona for analyses I'd like to set the stage of kani's early Arc prior to diving into the actual Japanese cultural context now let's Dive Right [Music] In what we first hear about Ki via the enaba rumor mill gives the impression that he's some Super Macho tough guy right this mental image of some scary brute which he certainly lives up to in our first couple encounters with him and maybe this is just me but I also can't help but notice that unlike other characters that wind up in the rumor mill like Yukio and Reay for instance the stuff mentioned about Ki is kind of all over the place some people say he's the leader of a biker gang others say he beats up the biker gangs and then there's some who lump him in with the same bullies that show up in ch social link so my point is there's a lot of really convoluted information circling around kanji which really adds in game stock as to why he feels like no one understands or accepts him but all these various rumors fit on an additional meta scale as well considering how Atlas sort of juggled certain aspects of his character which is something I'll get into more in the second half of this video now you gets a bit closer to the actual truth thanks to dojima the most interesting thing he reveals about kanji is that although he's been crushing biker gangs for years now apparently he does it all by himself because all the noise these guys stir up keep his mom up at night that last bit about his mom is our first clue that he's Act actually Kinder or more thoughtful than what all the town gossip suggests then we finally start getting the bigger picture once we hear what kanji Shadow has to say before the main boss fight it turns out kani's genuine passions are less about getting into fights and actually things like sewing and crafting activities that are normally categorized as feminine by society and so because his interests are deemed unequivocally girly instead of stuff that's even a bit more neutral for a lack of a better word like let's say reading or photography this likely plays a major role in why he leans so hard into outwardly demonstrating the complete opposite image this buff tough guy and epitome of Manliness who can prove themselves in a fight and intimidate and silence anyone and so kanji is unfortunately a victim of overly prescriptive gender Norms that result in things like toxic masculinity where every boy must fit into One Singular box and if they stray from said box then they're deemed weird a loser and most of all not a real man notably con's first memories of getting bullied for being too soft were actually by girls themselves which led a part of him his unconscious Shadow Self to believe that women are so arrogant and self-centered they cry if you get angry they gossip behind your back they spread nasty lies they look at me like now it's definitely not my intention to downplay nor discredit any of the hurtful things these girls did but it's also important to recognize misogynistic views when they pop up in this case the assumption that only girls are capable of spreading rumors and cruel words when in actuality the boys from yasogami are just as responsible for much of the Town gossip throughout Persona 4 One conspicuous example even comes just after kanji joins the investigation team there are these two guys who start talking about him at junz and so of course he scares them off but Chi's response kind of says at all she can't believe those guys would gossip like that about a classmate who honestly could have died on the topic of gendered stereotypes I'd feel remiss not to discuss how men and women are socially conditioned differently when it comes to how we process and express emotion especially in the west and trust me this will prove important throughout the video this will be a bit of an oversimplification of the following gender norms and how they came to be so please bear with me but as it pertains to kanji men essentially grow up learning that the only acceptable outlet for emotion is via anger or complete stoicism anything else is deviant behavior that usually gets called out like it's not okay to Simply Be Afraid or anxious otherwise you're called a [ __ ] or a pansy if you simply want to cry because you're sad you hear like hey man up or stop being a girl and if you just want to express happiness without the let's [ __ ] go you know the whole raw Rah attitude it's not uncommon to be called Gay and forgive me for using such terms and phrases but I did so to make a point historically most western cultures delegated emotion to the realm of women so that they could be labeled as irrational and therefore deemed unfit for certain positions in society this unfortunately resulted in the big stoic expectation of men because getting in touch with one's emotions has been stigmatized as illogical so in the end this also harms men because it's either don't display any emotion at all or only anger or some kind of aggression because at least that means you have some fight in you like a real man so looking back on the early investigations into kanji we find he's so focused on the word strange that it's a berserk trigger that always results in him angrily chasing off anyone who mentions it this short temper seems to mask the actual sadness and shame he feels deep down from the constant rejection simply for the type of hobbies he likes emotions he likely felt could never be expressed until he was able to trust you in his social length why because of all the times he's been bullied and excluded for being too sensitive for a guy and therefore not man enough he even reveals in rank nine that he felt like that was what his late father meant back then which became the main driving force behind his adoption of the full-blown tough boncho delinquent look in the first place now this isn't the full story of what his dad actually meant and we'll get into why shortly but before that I'd like to point out how kani's exploration of masculinity interestingly enough leans more into Western and other overseas ideals of Manliness compared to the more general or traditional Japanese view see many countries in Asia have been influenced by collectivists as well as Confucian values for centuries upon centuries ones that place social harmony over asserting oneself over the group accomplishments via cooperation are valued over personal achievements which is in large part why conflict avoidance Andor deescalation have less of a negative portrayal especially as it pertains to men than they do in other cultures in contrast it's not uncommon to expect someone to challenge or get in the face of the person who offends them in America another similar concept is machismo where there's a strong belief that differences should be settled via fighting back or physical violence in general I just think many people are unaware of what cultural differences actually entail with a tendency to view them as only along the lines of what people eat what kind of music they listen to what they wear when in reality entire philosophies values and ways of understanding how the world Works diff so fundamentally based on what culture a person is raised in for example we take it for granted that everyone everywhere has the same understanding of the self or what constitutes a person when in reality research over the past couple decades points to it being understood very differently across cultures a topic I focused on in the persona's silent protags and values dissonance video now please don't get me wrong there are definitely still instances of physical violence in East Asia and it's not like there aren't competitive societal expectations of men it just has less to do with physical prowess and more to do with academics and studiousness like the huge emphasis on cram school which I covered in more detail in my Persona 5 analysis on Moto but back to kanji it doesn't surprise me why he so popular with so many Western and other overseas fans plus this whole fighting versus conflict resolution thing actually goes hand inand with one of the takeaways he arrives at in the max rank of his social link he shares that one of his goals is to get better at using his words to communicate and express himself to others so to understand how he arrived at this conclusion and its significance it's about time we dive further into set social link in rank six kanji elaborates on the first time he really felt at odds with the other kids he fix his girl's bag back in elementary school only to see all the other girls make fun of her for it he didn't understand what exactly was going on back then only that he felt he must have done something wrong his mom also shares in rank three that he's always preferred things like homech and playing house over stuff like PE and sports so he never had any friends who were boys yet he sadly also was never accepted by girls so it's not surprising why kani's learned behavior was to shut himself off from other people one particular instance during the guy's okina City trip makes the result of this quite easy to see kanji wants to fix up the threads on this girl sleeve but because of his communication issues he actually scares her into thinking he's a thug who's demanding money so again showcasing a difficulty to express himself via his words notably around girls nevertheless he's an incredibly thoughtful person something that's especially highlighted in his interaction actions with the young boy in his social link it turns out this kid was labeled a [ __ ] for playing with his friend saa's doll and was ultimately pressured into getting rid of it by another boy conri immediately Springs into action and heads down to the river to try and find it and when he can't he's even willing to use his own free time to make a replacement and not only does he end up replacing the one the kid borrowed but kanji even makes an extra one for the kid himself Kani is reminded of all the times he just wanted to be accepted though this isn't the main thing that actually stood out to me you see it's not just the shared girly interests and bullying incidents but the similarities in their overall demeanors and personalities or at the very least it's heavily implied that this young boy is what kanji used to be like before he adopted his tough guy Persona it might not seem this way on the surface but kanji is always thinking about how his actions affect others as in he thinks of people outside himself this goes for his mom and how he's aware of all the trouble his Antics have caused her as well as with all his Newfound Senpai on the investigation team before his social link officially begins he says he's aware of the nasty rumors spreading about him and doesn't want those to cause any trouble for us which by the way this was one of the weirdest tonee starts to a social link ever considering one of the major themes of persona for is to not blindly believe what we hear but that's a topic for a whole another video As for the little boy he's very thoughtful himself he doesn't need to be told the right thing to do he knows he should tell the truth to his friend saana and apologize to her what's more he doesn't make fun of kanji at all and even calls him cool for making dolls he also immediately thinks of his own mom and asks kanji if he can make more dolls for her since she also loves those things so it's nice to see kani's relationship with this kid be a sort of catalyst for unpacking all his buried emotions and in doing so kanji ends up learning how to better articulate those past feelings which should result in more effective communication over time this ties into the takeaways of his max social link which I swear we will get to shortly but kani's negative experiences with the other kids growing up aren't the only driving force behind his insecurities many things involving his father also contribute we learn in rank three that he passed away in the hospital sometime prior to the events in game now there's a lot to unpack here since not only did his father tell him these words shortly before he died if you're a man you have to become strong but another incredibly important thing to note is that kanji wasn't actually there when he died his mom says he was somewhere else at the time and knowing how protective and thoughtful kanji is towards his friends and family like remember the reason he was always chasing off biker gangs in the first place was because all the noise kept his mom up at night and in his third tier Persona scene he wants to make her something special as thanks for having to raise him all on her own meaning it's implied he feels guilty for not having been there when his dad passed away especially given his sheer panicked reaction upon hearing that his mom is in the hospital kanji angrily yells at her then runs off when she tries to play it off like it's no big deal and again showing how anger is often used to mask other emotions like fear he doesn't open up at all about his dad in this rankup it's only thanks to his mom that we learn about this vital aspect of his past you see while it's never stated directly I can't help but think kanji feels this heavy burden of living up to being the man of the house now that his dad's gone and I think it only adds to a sense of protectiveness over his mom my own dad even lost his father when he was just 16 and I know he felt a similar weight on his shoulders and even other bereavement folks groups attest to this as well and then if I could just speak from my own sort of related experience myself my mom was terminally ill while I was in high school and eventually passed in my senior year and since she was sick so often and even bad ridden in her final year there were just a lot of common household things things that Society often leaves to the mother that I simply had to learn and pick up vice versa is true for boys and their fathers so on that note I think all of this just adds weight to kani's Obsession and exploration of what does it mean to become strong what does strength mean to a man now fortunately kanji seems to find the answer he's been looking for by the end of his social link he can finally say with confidence that I don't think it matters what kind of guy I am long as I can hold my head up high Ma's going to be proud of me this is more in line with what his father meant all those years ago you see back when kanji first joins the investigation team he described his par r as kind of weird they they say stuff like dyes are one with the universe and cloth is alive that's the kind of house I grew up in interestingly enough since he says parents with a plural s can't this imply that his dad was into the fabric and cloth stuff of the business too kanji has known to be a very blunt character he means what he says which is why I can't help but think he would have made a distinction like my mom always says cloth is blah blah blah if his dad truly didn't care about this stuff too meaning that there's no indication kani's dad actually had a problem with his son having traditionally feminine hobbies in the first place and in fact he himself likely appreciated cloth and understood the feelings his son was wrestling with Kani says people in the neighborhood treated him like some zoo animal so I'd find it hard to believe his dad wasn't aware of the exclusion going on so in the end he probably just wished his son would become strong in the sense of not caring what other people thought of him for his Hobbies perhaps especially so if he knew he might die soon and or was experiencing health problems though this last part is really just conjecture we don't actually know what his dad ended up passing away from anyway despite the unfortunate misunderstanding between the two kanji did eventually get the message the game depicts him having a great relationship with his parents otherwise or with his mom at the very least she knows what he's thinking and clearly respects him and while she apologizes to the police when he causes a Ruckus she never does so in a way that brings him down in fact she stands up for him and his character when they try to falsely label him a suspect in rank eight and this leads me back to that communication topic I mentioned earlier how kanji wasn't great at using his words like during the okina city trip well he also has this problem with the cops early on in Persona 4 for instance when the guys try to catch re on her first day back to Inaba he completely Dodges dojima question with a what's it to you then in rank two of his assel he totally shrugs off everything from the off-duty cop and even throws some accusatory things right back look I'm not here to argue how competent or not the Inaba police are my point here is that kanji makes no attempt to communicate nor explain anything now to be fair these guys are always suspicious of Kani but nevertheless this all further explores binary gender Norms like how men are socialized to not really talk about feelings but instead to find Solutions meaning kani's realization in Rank 10 aka the whole you have to make an effort if you want people to understand you actually challenges the ultra manly expectations he's been trying to live up to so far proper communication mediation and compromise are often considered feminine traits so it says a lot that kani's trying to get better at using his words now instead of resorting to fights he thinks back to the situation in rank eight and how it never crossed his mind that he could have just told the cops his side of the story and even if they didn't believe him which would have been its own separate issue the point is that kanji didn't even try at all when doing so could have possibly cleared the air before the kid and his mom had to be dragged into it which brings me to this Point kanji was never an innate [ __ ] the popo or screw authority figures kind of guy in the first place in fact of the main cast he is the one who mentions fial pet word for word the essensual tenant of Confucian values which I covered in way more detail in other videos like the dedicated yusuke one the kumi1 the Persona 5 Palace rulers and so on but in the briefest terms this entails a strong Defence towards one's parents to one's ancestors and extends to anyone who is older than said person in society such as older students receiving the Senpai designation so as for kanji there are various instances that show his actual trust in the authorities he's the one who reminds yoske to hurry up and call the cops once they've caught mitsuo and he continues to have General trust that the police will handle everything in the months following this is even after Naruto sort of alludes to otherwise you see ki's entire bonal delinquent look is less about some inherent issue with the rules and authority and was more just him overcompensating with his appearance due to his insecurities so no just because he shows up with unbleached hair and a non- punk look in the final section of golden doesn't mean he's regressed if anything all the things we've covered in this video should show how this is actual character growth that he doesn't feel the need to dress way over the top to prove anything anymore but speaking of his whole delinquent look this brings me to a very important developer interview on Persona 4 and a substantial foundation for the second major topic of this video now before getting into that interview please allow me to preface this second major half starting with this every once in a while I see this argument floating around that kani's Arc was only meant to address toxic gender Norms not whether he's gay or by or so on and they mostly site the focus of his social link and yeah sure if we're only going off of that then I'd have to agree but since he's a main playable character he clearly has narrative presence outside of this and speaking of the topic of sexual orientation comes up all the time in these mandatory scenes especially when it comes to his shadow design and dungeon I mean it literally says stuff like this I think that you three would make wonderful boyfriends but that's not all for one there are the various direct and indirect interactions with Naruto and for the sake of this video I'll be referring to her as she though I'll dive much deeper into gender identity and Japan in her own dedicated analysis anyway the entire cast thought she was a guy up until her dungeon this was all throughout their various meetups with her and so my point being that kanji himself was always under the impression that nao's interest in him and vice versa was with the understanding that they were both guys Persona 4 consistently calls attention to his hardly implicit Crush from the fireworks festival where he wonders if they should have invited the dude to the various instances on the tatsi island trip where he gets nervous and flustered when Naruto joins them and then there are the various reactions from the rest of the cast especially yoske to G's interest there are many instances as the months go on so I'm pretty sure you get the idea at this point kani's queerness wasn't some oneoff mention and considering how much attention was drawn to it it'd be a disservice to his character and the game to completely ignore this subject there's a lot more to unpack about this both positive and negative especially in regards to cultural contexts but before we go any further further I ask that you please just approach the following sections with empathy and an open mind I've been very blessed that I haven't had to deliberately ask this of the vast majority of you watching my video so far but given how this is one of the most loaded topics of the existing Persona games I'd like to do so now all right let's get into that developer interview from the persona for double jump strategy guide it's about P Studio's thought process behind the conceptualization of these characters and reads quote juvenile punks and boy detectives are stereotypes in Japanese anime and Comics but of course doing straight versions of them would be boring and prevent the players from being pleasantly surprised so we gave them mental weaknesses completely counter to their appearances furthermore later in the Q&A they claimed that in regards to Persona 2 the intention behind making Jun and TAA gay was to attract Fu josi fans and speaking of fujoshi culture I'll explore this legitimately nuanced Topic in my Yosi analysis but as this pertains to kanji my point is that the language in this interview just makes the gay part of his Arc sound more like a fun side note than any actual attempt to depict queer characters with proper respect creat ating something novel or interesting at the expense of LGBT plus people one of the most hurtful scenes occurs during the overnight camping trip where yoske wonders if he and the protag will be safe in kani's presence perpetuating this false narrative that gay men are molesters and sex offenders that have been pushed by anti-lgbt groups all over the world for decades now another particularly troubling thing is how Naruto actually actually being a girl is treated mostly as a relief when it comes to kani's Arc it's not that there's anything inherently wrong with the fact that Naruto ends up not being a boy and kanji is still attracted since by and pan identities exist it's just unfortunate that there's no reassurance from the rest of the cast like hey kanji whether you like a guy or a girl it doesn't matter we still think you're cool the harm of these kinds of messages add up and are twofold for one it causes kids like kanji to internalize negative beliefs about themselves that something must be inherently wrong or inferior about them remember he says this in his own social link and then there's the troubling research in social psychology that finds the implicit biases we develop in our childhood and Adolescence tend to stick with us for the rest of our adult lives it's hard to unlearn or even be a aware of the stereotypes we've unconsciously developed about certain groups of people which often just continue to reinforce themselves in our communities unless we actively challenge them that's why proper portrayals in media are important but with that said given the overwhelming lack of education and resources on these issues in Japan which I'll get into more detail later I'm wary of labeling all the Mish handling in P4 as deliberately malicious by the staff like just a reminder hashino explicitly said in the recent metaphor ref fantasio interview that the Persona games were written to speak to the real lives of Japanese citizens of the time however the onus of due diligence and proper research on a marginalized identity especially since they are basing such a huge aspect of a character around it was on them just because they didn't intend these various scenes to be homophobic doesn't make these depictions not that like forgive this crude analogy but basically just because I didn't intend to spill my coffee this morning doesn't mean it didn't actually happen but this kind of implicit homophobia wasn't always the case in Japan it's important to note that neither Japanese Shintoism nor the dominant imported sex of Buddhism had an explicitly negative view or forbiddance of homosexuality not only that there was a time prior to Japan's westernization where gender expectations and expression were not as binary so to speak as they became postm restoration this is unlike most western Nations where homo osexual relations were seen as inherently sinful due to the influence of Christianity this is huge given the pivotal roles both direct and indirect these nations played in Japan's development over the past few centuries so please bear with me as we dive into the historical social cultural context there are three terms in particular I'd like to focus on shol wakashu and kaga shol translates to the way of youths and refers to the homosexual relationships between Samurai all throughout the medieval periods this tradition involved an older man and Mentor the nja and a younger man the wakashu some of you who are into Japanese history may have already heard these terms before especially wakashu and how nowadays they're sometimes referred to as Japan's historic third gender on that note Scholars of this topic suggest it's rather ill suited to describe shle and wakashu in the exact same light as the Western understanding of gay relations especially of modern times since wakashu were not understood as men necessarily in other words aside from women grown men and young males were seen as two distinct categories entirely nevertheless the main takeaways here are that one wakashu were still always understood as biologically male and two sexual actions and relationships between men were not seen as negative or problematic in fact most of the famous historical Samurai have participated in this wakashu do including the very first Shogun in history minamoto nooro as well as the great unifiers of Japan who brought an end to the sangoku era Oda Nobunaga toyotomi hioshi and to ugawa yasu editing lady here I'd be remiss not to bring up how the understanding of age and the markers between Boyhood and manhood were fundamentally different in medieval Japan as well as most of Asia compared to Western views of the same time period I also want to make it clear that I'm not condoning legitimate p word you know what I'm referring to I'm just trying not to get demonetized again nevertheless Cal distinctions are important to make for example many Western Nations viewed the whole boy becomes man at a specific age or number of years from the time of birth now on the contrary wakashu in Japan could range from in their young teens all the way to as late as their 30s see the actual markers of young males were by the type of kimono they wore and their overall hairstyle so yeah walk a shoe had a style specific to them that was different from children but also from the grown men and most importantly this was achieved by the removal of hair since you know it's easier to do that than to grow hair specifically a small patch of hair at the top of the scalp would be shaved off though the for loock would still be kept this made it possible for the family relevant institutions and or Society to actually manipulate any given person's membership to the wakashu demographic since males who have moved on to the grown men category would shave the entire top part of their scalp off this is in contrast to the emphasis on the physiological changes of the body such as the growth of facial hair or a beard marking age in many Western societies however the Magi restoration of the mid 1800s uprooted the system in it entirety but before we get into how this changed so much of Japan let's talk about the third term I brought up earlier KAG this term referred to male prostitutes that became incredibly popular in the edel period in particular kaga initially referred to young male trainees who were taught to play women characters in Kabuki theater after women themselves were banned from the stage in 1629 the term translates into something like an area of Shadow since these trainees have not yet officially taken the stage light yet these young males dressed spoke and walked in a very feminine way because they were taught to for their theater roles yet were still distinguished from women like wakasu the kaga adopted the same four loock hairstyle and overall grew so popular that one need not be associated with an actual theater to be hired at KAG ma cha or in English kaga tea houses this is how the kaga term eventually became fully associated with male prostitution as for actual Kabuki there was a particular time between 1642 and 1644 where only male roles were allowed on stage not even the onata which were female characters played by men were authorized there was also an eventual ban on wakasu which opened up the way for clearly adult men only to play the wakasu roles for a time though the band was lifted in 1652 under the condition that all actors adopt the adult men's shaved paint since the for loock was basically too sexy so instead the wakao actors adopted this head scarf look instead which the public found just as tantalizing anyway my entire Point here is is to reiterate how there was no overtly negative view of homosexual relations the only times kagal were cracked down on or when they were viewed as a threat to societal discipline albeit from a hedonistic prostitution standpoint but starting with the Magi restoration of the early 1870s a whole host of legal changes set the stage for a lasting cultural shift many point to this period of anti-sodomy law targeted explicitly at homosexual relations from 1873 to 1881 but it was rather shortlived to enact lasting societal change on its own rather it's argued that the most significant change was to the visual and material markers that had defined shoel and menonmen intimacy for centuries you see the mai government had all men adopt the midlength haircut regardless of age those who didn't refined under a law that was introduced in 1873 so all men having the same haircut completely erase the existing age and class hierarchy resulting in the shle system essentially collapsing overnight this also reinforced a gender binary between strictly men and women only no more of this wakasu in betweenness the full adoption of the western biomedical model also had a hand in all this I mean sure it definitely had many positive effects on public health outcomes no denying that but it also unfortunately set the stage for more homophobic and also transphobic views of the latter 20th century onwards again more on the latter in the Naruto video but in the early 1900s Western psychology and sexology began to be translated and introduced to Japanese Academia and with it came the idea that homosexuality was unnatural and even a disease much like how things would later be categorized as psychiatric disorders in early editions of the DSM okay so even with all that said I still only scratch the surface on these topics but this section is already way too long I do still have a few more things to say about the mag era and Western influence though but before that I'd like to return to the topic of kanji Persona 4 and 21st Cent Tre Japan's views of lgbtq plus issues sneaky intermission so hey guys it's been a long while since I've shilled my patreon and soon to be Channel memberships mid video like this but if you'd please allow me to do so now these Behemoth analyses take well over a 100 hours each to finish especially since I'm a oneperson show I really go out of the way particularly for proper sourcing and research search so if you like what I do and have the means to throw some extra dollars my way any amount I truly truly appreciate it thanks now back to [Music] it the following isn't meant to excuse this homophobic lens or behavior but to help explain why things may have turned out the way they did in Persona 4 so going back to the implicit bias thing I mentioned earlier just as much as we are a product of our own nature we are also a product of our environment the behaviors and thoughts of our community are what becomes normal to us on that note in 2016 so not that long ago and definitely already after p4's release the Human Rights Watch published a substantial report on just how extensive anti-lgbt culture is in Japan starting from as young as Elementary School two students in particular recount how pervasive homophobic jokes and slurs were and another recalls that back in junior high one student outed a classmate and the teacher's response was oh don't come after me now does this remind you of anything what I mean is are we going to be safe alone with you in total the survey found that 86 % of respondents had heard anti-lgbt insults from both teachers and classmates within the most recent Academic Year a student counselor shares how longlasting and devastating this rhetoric is to his career students but it's not just what these kids hear that's so harmful but also the complete lack of resources and objective information on the subject he says that students come in to see him without having any kind of vocabulary to describe describe themselves their sexual orientation or gender identity and often times what info there is available is negative a student remembers that in their textbook there was a reference to homosexuality but only that it increases risk of HIV you can read the rest of the report along with all my other journals and sources with the links in the description but with all this said in a 2018 Japanese survey nearly 84 % of respondents said they weren't aware of anyone who identified as queer in their Community now I can't be certain about this but I can only imagine these numbers being even lower in 2009 when Persona 4 first came out since the 2010s was a big boom in advocacy for the Japanese LGBT plus Community thanks to the rise in social media and internet usage meanwhile a 2016 Pew research poll done in the US found that 87% of Americans did personally know someone who was gay or lesbian and this was the case across all religions and demographics so clearly the lived experiences are very different in this regard now back to the HRW survey something I found especially pertinent to Persona 4 is how often gender identity and sexual orientation are confused and conflated in Japan and just so we're on the same page here in the briefest terms gender identity is your innate sense of who you are male female or something else and is not to be confused with biological assigned sex it's also not to be confused with sexual orientation which is who you are attracted to notably the concepts of gender identity and sexual orientation are determined by the self and by determined I don't mean that in a dis missive way like it's just a choice or preference I mean from the standpoint of How It's on the person in question to conclude for themselves this is in contrast to gender rules and Norms that are determined by Society so given Japan's collectivist culture and Confucian Heritage where group Harmony is prioritized over the individual it makes a ton of sense to me why a game written by Japanese people might primarily focus on and handle the exploration of gender norms and resulting expression so things dictated by Society so much better than Concepts that have more to do with the individual's sense of self like back in my Persona polls and Silent protags Video I went over how East Asians have a fundamentally different concept of the self in the first place compared to Western individualistic Nations though this isn't true of all of course since no one group of people is a monolith but the gist of it is that research finds that the Eastern concept of self doesn't really exist separate from other people but is instead interdependent on the surrounding Community they felt most fulfilled when others and themselves acknowledged and could see their social roles status and relationships but anyway my main points here were to highlight the environment these folks are raised in including Atlas staff and how these homophobic thoughts and behavior are largely learned internalized and perpetuated unfortunately so where does this bring us remember I said I still had things to say about the Magi restoration well what follows are some heavier topics that I know many would rather not here but I can't help but feel compelled to bring up a perspective I rarely here mentioned in this space in the most respectful way I can quick editing interjection I'm asking for some real humility here and that hopefully you guys can separate yourselves from the actions of your ancestors SL historical Heritage for this following section so in the Persona fandom SLC Community whatever you want to call it there are tons of outspoken voices who ask for more queer representation in Atlas gamees especially so from Western players and that's a great thing I'm all for more and good queer options and representation myself however something that's always troubled me are the group of people who in their usually well-meaning demands also begin diving into orientalist territory and you may be asking what even is that so orientalism is when Western cult culture Western beliefs are seen as Superior to those in Asia whether consciously or unconsciously it's things like individualism is inherently better than Collective Harmony or Japan is still so backwards look at them and their lack of progressive culture now I cannot be certain of this but it seems many of these same people are unaware of the sheer historical impact Western countries have had in bringing such explicitly anti-lgbt plus beliefs to cultures across the globe in the first place and the kinds of thoughts I mentioned played a big role in driving this Global expansion most indigenous cultures of Africa and Latin America had a more fluid understanding of gender and homosexual practices but with colonization came new religion laws and legitimate persecution of any non-heteronormative acts so under the rule and authority of Christian inspired countries certain values in these cultures transformed over time similarly in former Commonwealth Asian countries section 377 of the British Penal Code criminalized these unnatural acts when prior to that homosexuality wasn't seen as inherently wrong or a stain on someone 's morality certainly there wasn't this widespread acceptance of solely gay Partnerships since most cultures still expected men to get married to have children but my overall point here is that for the most part homosexual acts weren't treated as this wholly unnatural thing that makes a person abhorent this brings me back to the Magi restoration yes it's true that ultimately it was Japan's own initiative to westernize as I went over earlier in this video and it's not like they didn't greatly benefit from it to the detriment of other countries but it's also true that there was much pressure to do so when the countries all around them like China and Vietnam were being annexed by Western Powers The Tipping Point for Japan was when Matthew Perry arrived on their Shores in 1853 with a showing of military might and essentially a threat that if they didn't open up to trade they too would face the threat of Western imperialism please don't get me wrong though I'm no Japan apologist especially for past human rights violations they've still never apologized for okay editing lady here so to be completely honest I've Rewritten this final part over 10 times and cut out a whole lot because it was getting way too long and I can't cover every single Nuance without getting to tangente so if anything I'm not trying to be antagonistic with this section but basically I'm just trying to caution against ethnocentric thinking and at least when it comes to LGBT plus issues from viewing things with a strictly Western Centric lens when harm was already done in the past it's possible to critique discrimination against queer minorities while still being mindful of and empathetic towards another culture different lived experience especially the queer people of these cultures themselves so just some food for thought Dr n Norman who specializes in Asian queer issues wrote that it's rather ironic that the modern lgbtq movement is built on this idea of diversity and identity existing on a spectrum yet quote the Paradigm of sexual identity tends to come in the form of a binary one is either out of of the closet or in it proud or ashamed open or repressed but Western culture is highly individualistic and what pride and empowerment looks like for an American say often doesn't translate in places that are comparatively more collectivist or where there is a larger emphasis on familial relations to be clear I don't think culture should ever justify a lack of legal protections and rights for all people regardless of identity in other words I'm not a cultural relativist when it comes to Human Rights but anyway I'd like to leave a few thought-provoking interviews with actual career Japanese folks links always in the description in this actual final section I'd like to point out some of the more hopeful trends of Japanese lgbtq plus advocacy since Persona 4's original release first off I want to reiterate how the 2010s marked a huge increase in awareness and visibility of queer individuals and the obstacles they face thanks to the sheer accessibility of being able to connect with the entire Globe via social media though it's true that hardly anyone comes out publicly in Japan even to this day a growing number of younger people have been doing so in recent years now there's still not a ton of visibility when it comes to celebrities and other public figures but just this past summer a pretty famous pop artist shinjo atay based by the way publicly announced he was gay which is huge since these celebrities normally have to worry about Brands dropping them there's also a growing albe it still small number of queer candidates running for and being elected to both local and national public office in fact kanako otsuji a lesbian was the first openly LGBT plus individual to be elected to the National Diet in 2017 and while there's sadly no National same-sex marriage nor any legal protections passed yet since 2015 a growing number of municipalities which now total over a 100 including all of Tokyo have made samesex partnership status possible to apply for and referring back to that Human Rights Watch report you know how the resources on LGBT plus Concepts were either negative or non-existent well this isn't any kind of binding change to the curriculum but this huge survey from 2020 found that nearly 90% of the public interviewed generally or firmly believed queer info should be taught in schools and overall this was quite the encouraging Poll for Japan's LGBT plus future so hopefully it's not just me but I still have hope Atlas will turn things around with how they depict quer at least in the Persona series since the Vibes I get from kazuhisa and the rest of the team that's taken over PE Studio since hash no's departure is that they're trying to be better P5 Royal did improve a big part of the problem with the gay NPCs from vanilla P5 and I can't recall any negative caricature gay scene in P5 Strikers though if there is one please remind me let me know and then Persona 3 reload has the pride flag on that girl's bag so hopefully everything I said here doesn't age like milk to find finally Circle back to kanji and wrap this up I think about where Japan and especially a rural town like Inaba was back in 2008 since Persona 4 was you know written by Japanese people for a Japanese audience times have definitely changed since then for the entire world really since same-sex marriage wasn't passed yet even in a ton of the G7 Nations as shown in the tap so with that in mind I don't think the negative aspects of kani's Arc should completely invalidate the success where it exists the commentary on gender norms for men and what it means to be masculine was very powerful for a society that values strict gender rule Conformity and though there were unfortunately harmful gay stereotypes perpetuated at kani's expense he himself is such a likable character who has very grounded real world problems aside from just his queerness or at the very least questioning status this probably endeared him to many players perhaps even those who've never encountered an actually nuanced queer person before now given my audience as mostly men I'd actually really love to hear from you guys and what you thought of kanji especially if you were coming of age in the 200ish times let me know in the comments well with that that I'm going to try something new and chat about just one of the things I cut from The Script while these fantastic patrons scroll by and future channel members once I launch those your support truly helps me afford living guys so thank you so I love how it's implied that Kani totally knew everyone was getting Placebo drunk at Club Escapade before they even start the King's game part he's just like is this seriously booze but but the smell he gets cut off but when keeping in mind a couple months earlier he tried to sneak alcohol into the group's shopping cart like he's definitely done that before so do you guys also think kanji totally knew that wasn't real booze anyway please check out all my other persona analyses like comment subscribe all that helps with the YouTube ELO find me on my other socials and finally I'd like to shout out my special Fusion supporters big clingy San bjack franccesco santoyo Rego M yolan platinum rose Malcolm Lowry Unholy biscuit Peter Shephard and

Channel: LadyVirgilia

Views: 22,491

Keywords: persona 4 golden, p4g, persona 4, persona sociocultural context, persona 4 character analysis, persona 4 japanese context, persona 4 analysis, persona 4 golden analysis, ladyvirgilia, persona 4 kanji, persona kanji

Id: AQFpJI0Vly0

Length: 58min 31sec (3511 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 31 2023