Transvestite culture in Japan

みなさん、こんにちは！
Hi everyone!

The rainy season was over and super humid disgusting summer has come. I really hate Japanese summer which seems getting hotter and hotter every year. Last Saturday on the 26th when  1,889 people were rushed to hospital due to heatstroke and 11 died. Isn't it awful?

Sorry, I didn't mean to complain about the weather. Today's post topic is transvestite culture in Japan. 

What intrigued me was a news report I saw on TV last week. A 27-year-old man got arrested for sneaking into a shop in an attempt to steal money and setting fire before leaving the place. But strangely, the person shown in video breaking in the building was a "girl." Yes, as you guessed, she was a man dressed as a woman. According to the report, he was an employee at a "cross-dressing maid cafe" in Akihabara, the Mecca of otaku.

A cross-dressing maid cafe?! I never knew such a thing even existed. I checked on the internet and found out there are at least several cafes or bars with transvestite waiters in the Tokyo area.

"Male maids" at Newtype, a cross-dressing cafe in Akihabara
where the arrested man might have worked 

Interestingly, those cross-dressers are not necessarily gays. Of course some may be, but many say they just love wearing women's clothes and they are romantically and sexually attracted to women rather than men. Some lady maids even brag that they are popular with women as they understand girls better and have common topics with them. 

That is a big difference from gay bars in Shinjuku 2-chome area, where cross-dressers are either homosexual or at least bisexual with high probability. In Akihabara cross dressing may be a kind of cosplaying, and that's why even young girls and heterosexual couples can casually go to a transvestite cafe.

New Type

Address: 3rd floor of Isamiya Diahachi Bldg., 3-7-12 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Tel: (03)5577-5565 

Hours: Tue.-Thu., Sun. & holidays, open 6-11 p.m.; Fri., Sat. & day before national holidays, 6 p.m.-6 a.m.;  

There are books, photo albums and DVDs of men in girl clothes. 

Photo album "Meme danshi eight" featuring eight cross-dresers

another photo album "Yuri danshi"

"Otoko no ko Make Book"
make-up book for crossdresers

Traditionally, Japanese have appreciated androgynous beauty. In Kabuki, a classical dance-drama established in the 17th century, performers are all men. Many kabuki fans often say that male actors can be more womanly than real women because men are always pursuing ideal female beauty. The photo below is of Tamasaburo Bando, a famous female-role actor (onnagata, 女形）and living national treasure. 

　

Legendary onnagata actor Tamasaburo Bando
  

Even in strolling troupes that have both male and female performers, good-looking young actors are often expected to play female roles. Believe or not, this lady is also a man, and straight.

Actor Taichi Saotome 

Cross-dressers can find their places to live in the world of TV as well. The most famous transvestite TV personality these days is definitely this big man-lady Matsuko Deluxe, who can be seen anywhere, on TV, in publicity on trains, etc. Everybody loves his (her?) sharp tongue.

ここからは日本語で。

From here I'll write in Japanese. 

少し前に27歳の男が窃盗目的で店に忍び込み、火をつけたという事件がありました。

窃盗（せっとう）：　theft

目的（もくてき）：　purpose

忍び込む　（しのびこむ）：　to sneak into

事件（じけん）：　incident、case

しかし防犯カメラの映像に映っていたのは男ではなくて女でした。

防犯カメラ（ぼうはんー）：　a security camera

映像　（えいぞう）：video picture

つまり男は女装していたのです。男は「女装メイドカフェ」の店員でした。

女装(じょそう）する：　to wear women's clothes

店員（てんいん）：　an employee of a shop, restaurant, cafe, etc.

そんなものを初めて聞いた私は、ネットで調べてみたのですが、いくつもあるんですね。

女装メイドたちは必ずしもゲイというわけではありません。女装が好きなだけで、性的には異性が好きという人もたくさんいます。

必（かなら）ずしも～ではない：　not necessarily

性的（せいてき）：sexually

異性（いせい）：　people of the opposite sex

日本は昔から中性的な美をもてはやす傾向があります。

昔（むかし）：ancient times

中性的　（ちゅうせいてき）：　androgynous 

美（び）：　beauty

もてはやす： to praise

傾向（けいこう）： tendency

伝統芸能の歌舞伎も男性だけで演じられます。女性の役を男性がするのです。

伝統芸能（でんとうげいのう）：　traditional performance art

歌舞伎（かぶき）： kabuki

演（えん）じる： to play

役（やく）：　a role

女性の役者がいる大衆演劇でも、しばしば若くてきれいな男性が女性の役をします。

役者（やくしゃ）： an actor/actress

大衆演劇（たいしゅうえんげき）：　popular drama (a genre of Japanese theatrical art)

しばしば： often