Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Homosexuality in Japanese History; Chapter 3 Just Like a Girl: Images of Homosexual Men as Feminine; Chapter 4 The Love between 'Beautiful Boys' in Women's Comics; Chapter 5 Gay Men as Women's Best Friends and Ideal Marriage Partners; Chapter 6 Images of Homosexuality in the Gay Media; Chapter 7 Interviews with Japanese Gay Men; Chapter 8 Japanese Gay Men's Self-Understanding; Chapter 9 Is there a Japanese Gay Identity?;

This book is the first to look at the wide range of contrasting images of the gay male body in Japanese popular culture, both mainstream and gay, and relate these images to the experience of an interview sample of Japanese gay men. In so doing, it touches on a number of important issues, including whether there can be a universal 'gay identity' and whether or not strategies developed for increasing gay and lesbian visibility in western countries are appropriate to the social situation in Japan