And for years it wasn't uncommon to see a cross-dresser on TV giving fashion advice or a Japanese cartoon with gay characters.īut while being openly gay has been OK for famous people or anime characters, on an individual level, it’s been really hard to be out in Japan. Japan - unlike the US - doesn't have a Puritan history that says homosexuality is some kind of cardinal sin. That’s disgusting,” she said, according to Hayashi. That really hurt. 'I just kind of said it quickly, 'Hey, I’m gay,'' he recalls. When 24-year-old Koki Hayashi first came out to his mom, he was a junior in college.