“Sexuality Is Part of Who You Are! It’s Only Natural That Everyone Is Different” Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2018 – New Employee Yamaguchi Edition

Nice to meet you! I’m Yamaguchi, and I joined the company as a new graduate in 2018!

Everyone, did you go anywhere during Golden Week this year?
As for me…
I wrap up Golden Week by attending “Tokyo Rainbow Pride”! It has been my annual tradition since my student days. When I was a first-year university student, I started a club with friends to think about diverse forms of sexuality, including LGBTQ. As part of those activities, I used to participate in Tokyo Rainbow Pride.

And because SUNNY SIDE UP supports PR for this event, this year I attended “Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2018” as an SSU employee! In this blog, I would like to share what the venue was like—its atmosphere and more—as well as what I felt anew after being involved from the PR-support side, having previously participated as a general attendee.
Tokyo Rainbow Pride, which promotes respect for diversity in sexuality, seems to be attracting more visitors each year. The number of people who attended the Pride Festival held over the final two days was a record-breaking 140,000 this year! I attended on the last day, May 6, and the energy was incredible—so many people were excited and celebrating!

At Yoyogi Park, the venue, many companies and organizations set up booths, and the area is colorfully decorated with the rainbow flags they display. Because the “six-color rainbow” is a symbol of diversity in sexuality, there were adorable rainbow goods everywhere! There were truly plenty of photogenic items and photo spots.

In addition, at a VR corner where you become the person involved and experience the daily life of a lesbian couple, you can gain insight into their worries, conflicts, and feelings.

At a bridal photo booth with the words “ALL LOVE IS EQUAL,” people of various sexualities were captured in photos with wonderful smiles.

We also joined the “Parade,” which could be called the highlight event of Tokyo Rainbow Pride!

Led by floats, this parade has everyone marching through Shibuya and Harajuku while playing music, and there were many people cheering along the route with calls of “Happy Pride!”

Even though we were strangers, everyone—including us—was exchanging high-fives and hugs with the biggest smiles! Every year when I participate in Tokyo Rainbow Pride, what I feel is that “sexuality has nothing to do with the connections between people.”

Here, I would like to briefly introduce an event I joined as a university student, hosted by an LGBTQ organization, called “Let’s make udon together.” Before the event, it was simply announced as an “udon-making gathering.” On the day, participants who came together regardless of sexuality included LGBTQ people as well as many straight people. After everyone had gotten to know each other, they were told, “Actually, this was an LGBTQ-related event.” Straight participants were initially surprised to learn that someone they had become friendly with was actually part of the LGBTQ community, but among them, we heard comments like this:

“Until now, I felt LGBTQ was something a bit distant from me—like a special group. But that was just my own assumption. When I talked without preconceptions, I realized they’re the same as us, and everyone is surprisingly ordinary.”

In the parade, you high-five people you are meeting for the first time, walk together, and when you return to the park, everyone says, “Welcome back!” You do not know whether the person you just high-fived is LGBTQ or an ally. However, that does not matter—this is an event where everyone can enjoy themselves together.

It is only natural that everyone has aspects that differ from others. It may sound contradictory, but we are all the same in that we each “have something that is different from others.” When people connect, is there really any need to draw distinctions using the word LGBTQ? That is how I feel.
A member who participated for the first time as a new graduate said, “If I hadn’t had this opportunity, I wouldn’t even have known Tokyo Rainbow Pride existed.” Because of my activities as a student, I knew about the event, and I also had friends who had come out as LGBTQ. But no matter who you are, the world you do not know will remain unknown unless someone teaches you. Without opportunities to learn, you cannot think things through and take action on your own. By participating in this event as a member of SUNNY SIDE UP, I learned the importance of PR—“creating opportunities for those who do not know to learn.”

If many people are celebrating in the heart of Shibuya and Harajuku, marching while holding up rainbows, some may wonder, “What are they doing?” People may be participating simply because it is fun, but I felt it also becomes a place where many people, without realizing it, take in the information being shared by so many.

Finally, I would like to share a few responses to a question we asked participants in the parade: “What kind of change do you hope will happen through Rainbow Pride?”

“When you live in Japan, it can feel like everyone is the same, but I want people to realize that each person is different. Not only in terms of sexuality like LGBTQ, but that it is natural for people to have differences—so I hope for a society where it is easier to say, ‘This is how I’m different from others.’”

“In reality, we live in a society where the person in the next apartment is a foreigner, and the people downstairs are a lesbian couple… I want people to be able to sense that these people are close by, through visible places like Tokyo Rainbow Pride that bring to light what everyone tries not to see.”

PR has the power to create movements and change society. In order to build “a society where everyone can take pride in their differences,” I would like to continue sharing positive information in this society where we can spark “fun commotion” that gets things moving!