My face photo.
Hi there! My name is Masaki (Twitter @QueerESL). I’m a Japan-based queer critic and YouTuber who creates stuff mostly about and against heteropatriarchy. My preferred gender pronouns are he, him, they, and them. I studied sociology of gender and sexuality in college (International Christian University, Tokyo) and graduate school (the University of Chicago), researching mostly straight women’s fight against sexism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia.
Me at Chicago Pride 2011, posing for the camera & holding a sign that says “Immigrants ≠ Your Homophobic Other.”
I’ve been freelancing since 2015 as a writer and speaker on various topics pertaining to gender and sexuality. Publishers include Seidosha, wezzy, wotopi, and Human Rights Association for Korean Residents in Japan. Hosts include universities, queer activist groups, professional associations, and ethnic minority groups. If you’re considering to invite me to speak at your event or in class, here’s a sample lecture and video. Please use the form below to contact me for business inquiries.
In exploring non-text format mediums for expressing myself, I started vlogging in 2015 on YouTube (Japanese / English).
In 2017, in addition to my interest in queer photography, I took up drawing to better visually express myself. See my Instagram art account for more drawings and photography.
An illustration by me of African American female singer Gloria Gaynor famous for her song “I Will Survive.”
A brushwork of a race-unspecified, gender-unspecified youth with a caption saying “MANGA CHARACTERS ARE NOT NECESSARILY ASIAN.”
A brushwork of an angry feminine-looking person with caption “NO, KAREN WHITE IS NOT REASON ENOUGH TO LOCK UP TRANS FOLKS IN WRONG PRISONS.”
My illustrations appeared in mika’s Magical Time-Traveling Dog Therapy: a canine-assisted therapeutic modality for treating complex trauma without tearing time-space continuum (2018).
One of my six illustrations that appear in mika’s zine.
I’ve also loved making music since I was 11. Combining electro-pop and kayokyoku, I have made some queer-themed songs which you can listen to on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUh8uLksAKvJeMOq9YbPBVyg&v=9RB3f0RKXe8
After spending my late teen years and early 20’s in New Zealand and the U.S., I am now back in Kitakanto (area north of Tokyo) where I’m originally from, working as the co-owner and co-manager at FAT CATS, a minority-friendly, discrimination-free dining space that my mother and I started in 2014.
FAT CATS Bar & Grill
One of the reasons I started this channel was because I had activist/scholar friends who struggled with English when communicating with fellow activists, researchers, scholars etc. from other cultures. I wanted to help them. Some Read more…
How do we talk about sexism, heterosexism, and ciscentrism in anime/manga when it’s part of “their culture”? Can we criticize misogynous, homophobic and transphobic anime/manga without being ethnocentric and arrogant? What’s the best way to Read more…
In this English lesson video, I explain to ESL learners the meaning of the word “sound” in the sense of an argument being logical and based on truth, then move on to explain validity and Read more…
Language is a weird thing. It’s external but also integral to our human psyche. By the time you’ve learned to speak, you become situated, recognizably to all including yourself, in the world. But if language Read more…
Consumers and creators of BL are often the target of online harassment and attacks. But I think there’s misogyny and homophobia behind that. (This video is in Japanese but subbed in English.)
Music has always been my passion since I started taking piano lessons at 10. I got my first Mac (the rounded, classic CRT iMac!) at 14 in 1999 and started making music on it. I Read more…
How do I say “bless you” in Japanese when someone sneezes? Why do Japanese people say “itadakimasu” (I shall take/eat it) before eating something? Well, language and culture are closely tied to each other. And Read more…
There is a growing number of educators, public speakers, workshop organizers etc. who publicly talk about LGBTQ issues. But not all of them are good. In this video I share with you some common mistakes Read more…
“Hate crime is nonexistent in Japan,” “Japan only recently started having pride marches,” “homosexuality is accepted in Japan because of the traditional male-male shudo sexual/romantic culture,” “Japanese media are LGBT-friendly,” and “Taiga Ishikawa is the Read more…