LGBTQ+ Japan: A Complete Travel Guide to Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ni-chome, Osaka’s Doyamacho, and Beyond

A note before we begin: I have only visited the Ni-chome neighbourhood of Shinjuku in Tokyo. The rest of the information is research-led. It is a travel guide for LGBTQ+ Indian travellers visiting Japan, or for any traveller curious about how Japan handles sexual and gender diversity. I’ve cross-referenced this from multiple LGBTQ+-led travel sources, […]

Kawaii, Oiran, Geisha, and the Pink Economy: Understanding Japan’s Complex Relationship with Sex, Commerce, and Cuteness

A cultural analysis of Japan’s relationship with paid pleasure after the 1956 prostitution law; how a vast grey-zone industry was engineered around a single legal definition, the real differences between Oiran and Geisha, the genuine debate around Kawaii culture and infantilisation, and how host clubs and male hostessing work.