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Nisshoku's avatar

It’s surreal to see so many people outside of Japan so openly into manga now. I work for a publisher in Osaka doing translation and lettering, and it can be kind of frustrating how this moment of things synchronizing, people engaging with everything down to even a niche recent mangaka, just goes over the heads of some of the corporate wigs making the calls on the direction of it. That’s just how it tends to go, and I’m endlessly fascinated by this never ending “gap” between the people interested in the entertainment coming out of Japan and the entities making it happen, but I can’t help but imagine how much more it could be if there were things like an interest in multilingual marketing, more active involvement in conventions outside of Japan, etc.

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Brian Watson's avatar

During my decade in Japan during the late eighties and early nineties, I also took note of the diversity gap from the queer perspective. The notion of 出る釘が打たれる really hit home. That said, my (Japanese) husband and I are still hoping to return to Japan, to retire there, and the changes I've seen since leaving in 1998 are encouraging. Japan is still my future.

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