Nina's Nihongo Zone 10 - Talking about LGBT Issues & Identity in 日本語 (Patreon)

Hello patrons, and welcome to episode 10 of Nina's Nihongo Zone. This month, at the request of a patron, I talk about Japanese terminology around gender and sexuality. A big thank-you to another patron, Rose, who recommended the Japanese sources I used for this episode. Below the sources, I've included a list of terms I mentioned in the episode, written in kanji, hiragana, and English.

- Explainer from Job Rainbow (a Japanese website and magazine about LGBT lifestyle and career issues): "What is LGBT?"  Also from Job Rainbow, a detailed explanation of some of the gender expressions included in the category X-Gender.

- Amazon Japan listing for the book 「ふつう」ってなんだ? LGBTについて知る本 or "What is normal? A book for learning about LGBT identities" (apologies for my clumsy translation of the title). While I couldn't read the whole book, even the excerpted portions in the listing add detail and reinforce what was in the Job Rainbow explainer.

- The intro song is "The city" by The Kyoto Connection, from the album Kyoto Soundscapes, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

- The outro song is "Brain Power" by Mela, from the album Mela two, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

Vocab List:

レズビアン  lesbian

ゲイ gay

バイセクシュアル bisexual

トランスジェンダー transgender

パンセクシュアル  pansexual

全性愛者 ぜんせいあいしゃ pansexual person

アセクシュアル／エイセクシュアル two different spellings for asexual

アロマンティック aromantic

ヘテロセクシュアル  heterosexual

シスジェンダー  cisgender

Xジェンダー  X-Gender, an umbrella term for agender, nonbinary, and genderfluid people

中性 ちゅうせい can mean neutrality, androgyny, or sexlessness, but is also used for people who, if gender identity were a spectrum with “man” on one end and “woman” on the other, would put their gender identity between the two.

両性 りょうせい is the term for people who understand themselves to be both male and female (not necessarily 50/50)

無性 むせい agender

不定性 ふていせい genderfluid

身体的性 しんたいてきせい sex, or physical sex

”生まれたときのからだの性” (literally, body’s sex at birth), seeming to refer to someone’s assigned gender at birth

体の性 からだのせい body’s sex

性器 せいき genitals or sex organs

身体的特徴 しんたいてきせいとくちょう physical characteristics

性別 せいべつ can mean sex or gender, depending on the context

性自認 せいじにん gender identity

性表現 せいひょうげん gender expression

性的指向 せいてきしこう sexual orientation

異性 いせい opposite-sex

同性 どうせい same-sex

惹かれる ひかれる to be attracted to (takes に as its particle)

If you have language questions or a topic you'd like to recommend for a future episode of Nina's Nihongo Zone, you can email me at gundampodcast@gmail.com, or leave a comment below!