Cyrano's Topics (213)

The novel is actually called "Botchan." Good job there, smart guy.... X-D

No, it isn't. It was written in Japanese, remember? Not in English. Natsume Soseki was a JAPANESE writer... And in Japanese, the "t-sound" is part of the hiragana "chi", which is pronounced "tchi". If you write 'bochan' in hiragana, it is written like this: "ぼちゃん". Bo-chan. No "t" anywhere. No need for writing one, it's already there!
Since in the translation, English people need to know you have to pronounce the ch-sound as "tch" and not "sh", the translator of Soseki's book added a t to the ch, but that is only in translations, to help people who don't know Japanese!
And I suppose one expects the translators of these manga to know Japanese, or not?
On top of that, in this manga, he/she puts TWO c's; that would make it "bock-chan" or something. Totally wrong.
Don't you smartguy me, or else I'll smartguy you right under the table! :-P

It isn't spelled that way in English, though. Google it. Done. Smart guy that, smart guy. :-P lol

That's my point: it's NOT an English word; and the transscription (Hepburn) doesn't write it that way. The t is just added in order to keep western people from reading "boshan".
Google isn't always right, quite the opposite; and anyway, there NEVER are two CC's. Not even in Google Translate.

Well, if you don't want the two 'C's, then you're going to have to accept a 'T'. Besides, the spelling with two 'C's is in the urban dictionary and is generally accepted among both translators and readers alike. Things change. Get over it.

There are plenty things that lots of people "accept", which doesn't make them correct. Wrong is wrong and stays wrong. That's something you have to get over... For most people, "bocchan" is going to be read "bock tchan". Period, end of discussion. Whether many people accept mistakes, don't make them anything else but mistakes!

lol You just need to get over yourself and your narrow-minded way of thinking. Period. Language changes constantly. Romaji is an imperfect system to begin with. All that matters is that the word is pronounced correctly, right? Right. Oh, and be careful stressing over things that don't really matter. That's how you die early.

Replying 'cause you don't agree to something, doesn't mean you're stressing, darling. When something is written incorrectly, that's exactly how you cause people pronounce it incorrectly, which is quite important, (justly) according to you, ... So correct spelling DOES matter.
'Romaji' is not a script. It is the way Japanese call our alphabet! That's all. The transscription J-E in romaji however, is a fixed system called Hepburn, and that one is NOT imperfect, it is a set rule you're supposed to know. It doesn't change, and nobody has the right to change it, lest he makes a mistake.
Oh, and language changes constantly, that's true, but not by making mistakes! It changes depending on the lifestyle and needs of a people, not depending on the lazyness of youngsters who won't be bothered to listen when someone tries to explain how it's done properly...
And don't worry about me dying early: that's a risk I'm beyond, since I'm already old! :-D

lol How old are you? Yes, romaji translates directly to 'roman letters,' I know. And yes, correct spelling does matter. That's why I have to tell you.... It's 'laziness.' lol Sorry, I couldn't help it. But if the translator(s) did spell it your way, English speakers would indeed pronounce it 'boe-chan.' Not because of laziness, but because they just don't know any better. So in this case, spelling takes a back seat to pronunciation. And it's not just this translator, this manga, or even just this site. The term 'bocchan' is used extensively. And no matter how much you kick and scream, that's not going to change.

I don't know about Japanese high schools, but in the U.S. there have been a lot of bullying in schools. I personally have been lucky enough to not experience it, but that doesn't mean it's not still a common problem for a lot of kids. Plus, from what i've gathered, based on their culture Japan can be a lot more strict about sticking to society's rules. There's a lot less wiggle room for anyone who is even a little different from the norm

It can actually get bad in Japanese schools. The social attitudes there are different, leaning more toward saving face and hiding anything shameful. Train groping, rape, bullying - usually the victims will "put up and shut up," because making a fuss about it draws attention. The victim doesn't want that attention because it's shameful, and shame also equals dishonor. Even though other people realize what's going on, they will turn a blind eye, to save the victim from shame. It's a weird thing that goes back to the old days. BUT, the younger generations have been changing that, I think. With internet and more connection to other cultural ideas, they're speaking out more and standing up for themselves, screw societal expectations, basically. And that's good.

Thank you! You summed it up so much better than I did. It's great that things are (hopefully) changing for the better.

Avoiding shame and saving face at all cost is indeed a traditional thing in Japan; but that doesn't necessarily explain the bullying. I think it has more to do with their lack of assertivity. Or rather, with the fact that being assertive is not seen as something good.
Being able to stand hardship on the other hand, that is considered an admirable virtue: putting up with a lot makes you proud of yourself, not ashamed. Whereas over here, someone who puts up with bullying would be seen as weak, in Japan he would be seen as strong... Standing up for yourself and being assertive would be firmly frowned upon and thàt would be considered "weak".
Where right and wrong is concerned, I've seen that in Japan, it's often the exact opposite from the west.

Oh, I wasn't trying to explain the bullying, just that it isn't treated the same as it is here. I think that because Japanese people tend to suck things up and keep things to themselves, bullying is easier to get away with. And while being able to withstand hardship can be seen as admirable, a person who is raped or groped might not speak up about it, because what happened to them is a shameful act. In the past they were more likely to keep it hush-hush, but they're moving away from that more now. My mother is Japanese born and raised, so I learned a lot about their way of thinking from her. Of course, she's one of the assertive ones, which for her time was rare, but she had some balls. I was just in Japan in September 2015, saw a lot of that lack of assertiveness in the general population, but my nieces (in their 20s) were chock full of it.

Ah, soo desu ka. ;-)
Yeah, being assertive was never seen as something brave and admirable, rather as weak and bad. People who put up with bullying by "betters" senseis, sempais, bosses, etcera, would never been despised for it, au contraire. If you spoke up for yourself, that would be despised and seen as 'unable to be stoïc and brave", therefor weak or cowardish. However, the bulliers would be despised too, nonetheless, since clemence and compassion was a great virtue and still is in all Buddhist countries.
But there's a big difference between bullying and sexual harrassment! Being groped or raped was indeed shameful and dishonoring, as it is everywhere. But not so much so as in Christian and Muslim societies though, since sex didn't have a taboo on it.
The bullying in schools by older kids was always frowned upon by the teachers: I've read that in book from the Edo era. Older kids were supposed to take care of their younger siblings or younger schoolmates, not bully them! Bullying is abuse of power, and that is very un-Confucian...
Anyway, bullying in schools and offices happens in many countries and civilisations: abuse of power is something like an Original Sin in Humans, we're all born with it. Whether it's been considered bad or good, give them half a chance and people will do it. Even very young kids.

(I'm from France)
IMO there's always bullying, it's just the way it's done that changes. Let me explain: in manga usually it's the "active" kind, with direct physical/spoken attacks. But I don't think it's the type that happens the most often. In the contrary, I believe it is the "silent" kind: you just put the victim apart, never talk TO them but talk ABOUT them in their presence... Basically isolate them.
I used to be a victim of that and the bigest problem with it it that people don't want to see, they tell you "you just don't socialize enough" (not like you can actually since no one will speak to you) and in the end you're just that gloomy kid from the class. And teachers interfering certainly doesn't help...
In the end I scratched my wrist bloody, pulled out my hair and had a nervous breakdown before my mom aknowledged the problem ╮(￣▽￣)╭ And only my mom!
It nearly became active bullying too but that made me so angry (to the point that I could have killed them if they hadn't ran away) that they were too scared to come back and just worsened the silent bullying...
The worst is, I am absolutely sure that even now the people from my school at the time haven't realized this was bullying.
(sorry for the loooooong post)

You poor thing. '(Pauvre petit...)
I was never really bullied, unless by my older brother. But at school, I was always the odd man out, from kindergarten on: I was a child prodigy with all sorts of extreme talents, so I was used to not being "like the other kids". It didn't bother me the way it does most kids. Some kids were less friendly than others, but nobody could draw or write like me, so nobody rivalled, it was no use, I was in an other league, so to speak.
In normal friendly relationships though, there were some kids who were dominant by nature, and those though me the hard way that I may be a lot of good things, but assertive I was not. I could never speak up for myself, and still can't, although it has gone a lot better now that I'm old.
In my schooldays, there also was much more control from the teachers and room-masters (actually, I was in a convent boarding school, there were nuns and friars and priests): there was no way you could like gang up secretly in a group against one in the bathroom or so (there wasn't any bathroom, for once ;-} ...), or shun somebody for weeks without some teacher noticing it. We hated that, and found it intolerable to have such lack of privacy; but in a sense, it was a good thing as well. Lots of privacy within a secluded community leads to "Animal Farm"-like situations.
Kids killing themselves over bullying through chatrooms or on Facebook didn't happen either, since there weren't any of those things like Internet or social Media.
And also, most kids were so bad at writing papers, especially essays, they all needed me! I wrote nearly all the essays in my class, and also several of the higher classes; the teachers knew that and allowed it. But it gave me a certain power over the kids, which meant a form of protection against being bullied.
You see, I also write long posts. Mine are often even twice as long.
(à propos, tu écris fort bien l'Anglais pour un Français (Française?)

Haha well I basically lost all of my friends at that time ^^' I guess I was too gloomy/depressed for them ╮(￣▽￣)╭
I think it's actually the main reason as to why I ended up being such an otaku... I mean, my only social link was my sister (and Internet) and manga is the only thing we had in common at the time =_="
I wish the school employees had been a little more "present", but I think they also had more important problems at the time (that year there was a rape , drug problems and a "criminal network" - they used the kids to steal the others' house keys and then commit burglary... But strangely, no suicide)
No bathroom?! (⊙…⊙ ) We had no locks on the doors (broken), but we still had toilets! Did you hold it in all day long?! (Am I strange to ask that? XD )
Oui, j'essaie! J'ai tout appris grâce à Avatar-The Last Airbender (no comment) et en lisant en ligne, donc ce n'est pas parfait, mais bon! Je pratique beaucoup ;9 (Française, mais "Français" ne me dérange pas ;) )

Peste, ça me paraît une vraie île à pirates, ton école, comparée à la mienne!
Mais moi, tu vois, je suis vieux, alors, mes années de collège datent des décennies '50 et '60 du siècle dernier. Alors, la discipline était bien plus forte, quoiqu'on ne nous a jamais battus.
Pour ce qui est du "bathroom", il s'agit d'un malentendu causé par l'euphemisme utilisé par les Anglophone pour "toilettes". Je parlais bien d'une salle de bains, une vraie, pour se baigner! Ca, il n'y en avait pas. Des toilettes, bien sûr, il y en avaient! Quoiqu'encore vingt ans avant, les élèves avaient tous leur propre "vase de nuit"...
Mais non, il n'y avait qu'un seul lavabo au dortoir; et nout autres, dans nos "chambrettes", (des enclos de bois sans plafond, fermés seulement d'un rideau), nous avions chacun une aigière et une bassine, pour nous laver et nous brosser les dents. Le matin, on nous voyait tous en rang, avec notre bassine pleine de l'eau sale de nos ablutions, aller vider cette bassine dans le seul lavabo. C'était de l'eau froide, l'hiver comme l'été.
Mais comme je disais: les surveillants nous tenaient à l'oeil nuit et jour; on n'avait guère l'occasion de nous tourmenter et encore moins se violer les uns les autres, d'autant plus que nous étions tous des garçons et que l'homosexualité, nous ne savions même pas que ça existait à l'époque... (cela dit, moi je savais... mais je me taisais très fort sur ce sujet-là).
Et bien sûr, dans cet univers ultra-fermé, les drogues étaient inconnus, même les cigarettes étaient défendus, à mon grand soulagement car je détestais cela.
Comparé aux générations suivantes, on était extrêmement sages ... faute de moyens d'être autre chose que ça, je suppose!
Ca s'est passé à Bruges, dans un bâtiment tellement beau qu'il vous consolait de ne pas être chez vos parents. Il est toujours là, d'ailleurs, toujours aussi beau. Mais je suppose qu'à Bruges, les bâtiments pas extrêmement beaux, c'est dur à trouver... Tu connais Bruges?
Ils étaient forts sévères, les professeurs et les surveillants, à cette époque-là. Mais pourtant, je pense que je préfèrerais toujours une école comme la mienne à celle que tu décris.

Alors, grâce aux bandes dessinées Japonaises, te voilà délivrée de tes traumatismes? C'est excellent. J'en suis fort aise.
Moi, en revanche, je suis devenu dessinateur de BD, mais non pas style manga, plutôt vrai style Belge.

Oh, nous n'étions pas la pire génération! Les suivantes étaient pires... Pour simplifier, (je suis de Paris) mon collège était éligible pour devenir ZEP (zone d'éducation prioritaire ; en gros, plus de moyens et de personnel pour traiter les cas) mais faute de moyens dans mon arrondissement on avait juste les cas et pas l'argent...

J'ai l'impression (ou c'est juste à Paris?) que les jeunes sont beaucoup plus "open" qu'avant sur les (utilisons un terme pompeux) "sexualités alternatives"... J'avoue que ça rend la vie un peu plus simple. Et je me relis et me rends compte qu'avec mes 20 balais, ça me va bien de parler des "jeunes" XD

XD j'ai eu peur l'espace d'un instant... Enfin, ça m'a pas l'air plus simple pour autant ^^'

Je connais la ville de nom mais je n'ai jamais pu y aller ^^ j'avoue connaître assez peu la Belgique... A part Waterloo, mes grands-parents sont du Nord donc on avait été visiter.

Wow, dessinateur! La classe!!! Lesquelles, si je peux demander? (cela dit j'avoue que je ne m'y connais pas tant que ça en BD vu que je lis surtout des mangas et quelques comics indépendants, mais chut! ;) )
C'est marrant (rare?) de croiser un professionnel sur un site de lecture en ligne... Mais c'est sympa!

Forcément, puisque les lecteurs de BD sont mon public, ça m'intéresse ce qu'ils se disent. Autrefois, ils nous écrivaient des lettres, ou on leur parlait et leur posait des questions lors de foires de livres, tels que le festival d'Angoulême. Maintenant, il est plus façile d'entrer en contact avec les jeunes, mais j'ai peur qu'ils ont toujours autant de peine à s'exprimer.
Et comme on commence toujours par être lecteur de BD soi-même avant d'en devenir un, je m'intéresse autant aux histoires qu'aux commentaires des jeunes dans ces sites-ci.
Moi, mon style de dessin c'est du genre réaliste. Euhhm... connaîtrais-tu "Thorgal"? Eh bien, c'est un peu dans ce genre, mais pas des vikings, je préfère le 17ième siècle, moi. J'aime à dessiner les beaux bâtiments, les carosses, les chevaux, et surtout les scènes d'escrime! (faut pas me demander lequel était mon livre préféré étant gosse: les trois mousquetaires, bien sûr!) Ce n'est pas pour rien que je porte avec fierté le surnom "Cyrano".
Bruges, c'est dans la Flandre Occidentale. J'habite à Ypres, autre ville historique, encore plus près de la frontière Française. Le département Français que vous appellez "Nord-Pas-de-Calais" ça faisait partie de la Flandre, originairement, jusqu'à ce que Louis XIV l'a annexé à la France. Tous les noms de villes et communes sont encore Néerlandophones, probablement fort difficile à prononçer pour des francophones :-P 'où vous habitez? moi, j'habite à Verlingem. Moi, à Godewaertsvelde" ha ha ha ça nous fait bien rigoler commes les francophones se tordent la langue à essayer de dire ça...
La culture Japonaise m'intéresse aussi beaucoup depuis longtemps.
Ca fait toujours bizarre pour un Belge d'entendre parler de ces différents systèmes d'Education qu'il y a dans d'autres pays. Ici, il n'y a qu'un seul système, le même pour tout le monde. Il y a deux réseaux: le réseau dit "libre", qui est organisé par l'Eglise, et l'autre par l'Etat. Mais les règles et les subventionnements sont exactement les mêmes, ainsi que le curriculum, d'ailleurs. A l'étranger (en dehors de la Belgique), ça dépend dans quel collège que tu as été si t'est accepté dans une université de grande réputation ou pas. Chez nous, toutes les écoles se valent, et les Universités aussi. Alors qu'en Angleterre, si tu sors de Cambridge ou aux Etats-Unis de Yale pare example, ou au Japan, du Tôdai... je ne sais pas si la Sorbonne a une réputation meilleure que les autres de la France, mais en Belgique, ça n'a absolument pas d'importance où t'as étudié, du moment que tu as ton diplôme, toutes les écoles sont aussi difficiles ou aussi façiles, si tu veux. La seule différence d'appréciation, c'est le sujet. T'es Master en Droit, ou en Médecine, ou architecte ou ingénieur ou chimiste. Peu importe où tu t'es procuré ce diplôme (du moins en Belgique) pour les futurs employeurs ça ne fait aucune différence puisque tous se valent.
Mais il est fort difficile de vivre d'une profession comme la bande dessinée; à vrai dire, tous les "bandessinateurs" Belges ont un boulot à côté de leur art, excepté quelques-uns. La bande dessinée, ça ne nourrit pas son homme, comme on dit.
Je ne sais pas comment on pense de ce que tu appelles "les sexualités alternatives" en France, mais ici en Belgique homosexualité et hétérosexualité est considérée tout à fait égale pour la Loi. Il doit y en avoir encore des gens aux moeurs rigides qui ne supportent pas les gays; mais pour la Loi, on est tous égaux. Et c'est très bien ainsi. Pas vrai?

J'aime bien le style réaliste ^^ Par contre, j'avais pas réussi à accrocher à Thorgal... C'est dommage.
J'avoue être plus amateur d'ambiances médiévales (fan de fantasy...) mais je connais aussi assez mal la Renaissance et ses débuts... ça joue probablement dans mes goûts ^^'

C'est vrai que les noms des villes sont souvent compliqués... Mais bon en tant que germanophone (j'ai étudié l'Allemand à l'école) j'arrive la plupart du temps à prononcer (bien, je ne sais pas, mais prononcer, oui XD ).

En France c'est plus le type de diplôme qui compte j'ai l'impression... En école d'ingé je connais plusieurs personnes qui ont repris leurs études après un master ou une licence parce que "bac+3 c'est trop" (les postes proposés sont bac+2) et bac+5 si ce n'est pas ingé ça n'intéresse pas les entreprises... On marche sur la tête.

C'est dommage! Je pense que ça doit jouer pour une grande part dans les délais inter-tomes... Et généralement (avec le prix et le nombre de pages) c'est ce qui rebute dans la BD franco-belge.

En France aussi nous sommes tous égaux aux yeux de la loi (surtout maintenant que le mariage gay est enfin légal, au moins une chose de bien qu'aura fait Hollande) mais socialement ça reste toujours un peu compliqué pour les bi/pan et les asexuels... En gros "l'un ou l'autre" c'est bon, mais "tout ou rien" ça passe pas ╮(￣▽￣)╭ (la plupart du temps on se voit répondre, "t'es jeune, tu te cherches encore" ou "t'as juste pas trouvé la bonne personne") Les homosexuels sont, je trouve, beaucoup mieux acceptés par ma génération.

Ouais... tous ces préjugés sont nés dans l'ignorance, je suppose. Dès qu'une personne ou une communauté s'habitue à l'idée, à voir et à éprouver dans la vie de tous les jours qu'un groupe considéré auparavant bizarre ou anormal, dans la réalité n'est pas plus bizarre qu'eux, ils l'accepteront, faute d'arguments pour continuer la contramine. S'il n'y a pas une religion intolérante ou une différence de culture qui s'y oppose, ça peut s'arranger, après un certain temps. Et même malgré les religions et les cultures différentes. Les préjugés culturelles sont basés sur la peur de l'Autre; et dès que l'Autre a cessé de l'être, ça devient normal.
Je ne comprends pas trop ce que tu expliques sur les diplômes en France: c'est surtout à cause des appellations Bac + deux ou trois, ingé, lesquelles sont inconnues en Belgique. Chez nous, ça s'appelle autrement. Mais les imployeurs, eux, ils sont aussi difficiles lorsqu'il s'agit d'engager les gens... j'ai travaillé dans le Bureau de l'Emploi pendant 30 ans, alors j'en sais quelque chose!
dites, Mademoiselle, si vous préférez correspondre au sujet de BD et autres choses, pous pouvez écrire sur [email protected] , c'est un compte que j'ai exprès pour parler avec mes collègues et mon "public". Mangasakka, ça veut dire dessinateur/écrivain de bd" en Japonais.
Autrement, je pense que les autres personnes sur ce site vont s'énerver de voir tout ce Français auquel ils ne comprennent rien... d'accord?

Haha, ça marche!

Quoi? Qu'est-ce qui marche? ┑(￣Д ￣)┍

XD que j'envoie un mail bientôt ;)

Ahbon :-)
Tu peux le faire en Français ou en Anglais, ce que tu préfères, moi je de toute façon je suis Flamand, alors on est polyglotte...

Google? Friend of everyone? Anyway, here ya go, just scroll down.
https://educationinjapan.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/are-you-an-ikumen/

katakana IS japanese....

Ikumen is a buzzword that describes fathers who are actively involved in childrearing.

Duh, I know that. But you don't understand what I mean: In Japanese, katakana is used for foreign words, for instance if they would want to write your name in their alphabet, they would write: "ミシャ" => Misha. They wouldn't use hiragana or kanji. But there are a few Japanese words, not too many, that are written in katakana as well. Slang or so. Only, since there was an normal English word behind, I assumed it was either some slang word or English word in Japanese transscription, and not your average Japanese word. See what I mean?

Arigatou gozaimasu. A buzzword, those are also written in katakana, since they change at the speed of light over there.

So it's actually half-Japanese, half-English: ikuji is Japanese, men is English. It's obvious this type of word could only be written in katakana alone, since although there IS a perfectly good kanji for iku, kanji and katakana can never be combined in one single word.
So, I was HALF right :=P

I wonder if it would be okay for a male kindergarten teacher to be gay in Japan? Women are seen as okay regarding being around children, while men in general are regarded with more suspicion (though I agree with you that being unmanly is probably less of an issue in Japan). We already know that some people associate gay people with pedophiles so it would be nice if being gay isn't an issue.

On your comment of disappearing mums I do agree that it's pretty hilarious how conveniently they are erased for plot purposes. I've read yaoi (mostly untranslated) where single fathers (with sole-custody) have male partners with whom they raise the child together as their own. I don't know why the mother let the father obtain sole custody in the first place, but I doubt she or the in-laws would be okay with two men raising her child (especially if it was an ugly divorce and she didn't know ex-husband was gay) without her knowledge. Japanese society is still fairly traditional and I don't think you can hide that your male lover lives together with you and your child. Especially when neighbors and grandparents are constantly asking when are you are going to remarry someone new.

MMM. However traditional Japanese society still may be, homosexuality or any form of sexuality has never been as much an issue there as it was in Christian or Muslim countries: before the country was opened to the world, every husband had, besides his wife, several lovers, some male, some female. Kind of like in the Roman or Greek society, really. And homosexuality has never been linked to pedophilia in Japan either: that is a typically western mistake!
So, no, a person's sexual orientation wouldn't be as much a problem in Japan as it would be in say, Russia, Poland or the USA, to do any type of job.

About the lack of believability of the "dissappearing mums": that would be less due to the ex-husband being gay, but rather because the rearing of children has always been the exclusive task of the mother, in Japan. Their education, their upbringing, everything was her responsibility and it still is: Therefor, it is much more likely to think in most cases after a divorce, whether the husband be gay or not, the children would always be given to the mother, since the man is still the provider in most cases, and has to work long hours to bring in the bacon. He would probably get visiting time and pay alimony, just as it is done in the west. His being gay wouldn't come into the picture, or at least it woudn't make things any worse. It would in European conservative countries, or in America; but not in Japan. Not as a rule.

says someone who didtn write the fact that homosexuals in japan neither can marry nor be openly gay in economic oriented buisness. bc japan and other asian countries rather have a married man than a single in important positions in a firm.these happy go lucky yaoi marriage with adoption is a way but most jap. ppl dont do that bc of the shame for the family.

Well, regarding gay marriage, you must take into consideration that the Japanese Consitution hasn't been made by Japanese, but by Americans, by the victorious American army under the lead of general McArthur to be precise, after WW2. It is totally obvious that homosexuality, which was still a crime punishable by death in some States of the USA and a vice crime everywhere, wasn't going to be put into that Constitution as something that was okay in Japan. Even if in Japan, it was really okay and had always been okay...
Ever since, Japan has been under strict political influence of the USA, mainly because America wanted it to be an Army base against their ennemy of post-Worldwar time: the Soviet Union and China. The CIA always took care left-wing parties never stood a chance of being elected into the Japanese government, only conservatieve ones; hence the lack of progressive civil and penal law. But in daily practice, Japanese gay couples have always had a handy way to bypass the dissadvantages of there not being a gay marriage-arrangement: the fact that there is no age limit to adoption! In most western countries, you can only adopt a kid, up to his age of consent. You can't legally adopt an adult! But in many countries in Asia you can, it has always been possible. So, gay couples have always taken care of preventing heritage problems that way: the oldest man (or woman) in the gay couple simply adopted the youngest one. This way, him or her being his hair, nobody could prevent him/her of their rights to the house, the custody of the children, and everything else.
So, there is not such an urgent need for a legal arrangment for gay marriage in Japan as there is in western countries. Politicians therefor don't really are asked and urged to fight for it or put into their program as often as they are in the west, were a gay "widower", after the death of his partner, can be thrown out of his house, his children be given to others and never have any legal right to anything, because the marriage arrangement is the only way you can proove to the Law that you belong to somebody. And if there only exists a mn-woman-marriage arrangement and no same sex-equivalent, this becomes a big problem when one dies, or in case of divorce; one is always going to be suffering, in case of demise it's the one left alive who doesn't only lose his beloved partner, but also everything that made up his life.
If there exists an easy way to tiptoe around that problem, it becomes less urgent.
The mentality about "being openly gay in the corporation milieu" is already changing. It goes together with the breaking of the famous Glass Sealing; and also, since Japanese are slowly evolving towards returning to their ancient moral standards, away from this Americanization of their culture, the intolerance toward things considered Evil by Biblical standards, that have been inflicted upon Japan by the American occupier in 1945 will become less and less important. In Edo Era, every leader or man of importance had a wife, who was the Mistress of the house, mother of his children, and responsible of the household, the education of the kids and the care of the parents-in-law in their old age; the wife still holds the household budget and gives her husband a monthly allowance, just as she does the kids. That has always been like that.
Next to his wife, a well-to-do man used to have either lovers or concubines, legally kept ladies who had a right to calling him their "husband" as well as the Lady of the Manor, but in a lower rank. And he also often had male lovers, why not? Who was to stop him?
But there was the fact that a base had to exist, a stepstone to the future: a family, a man, a wife and children. Else who was going to succeed the Lord? So all men of a certain importance were married, usually by their parents, to some daughter of an other family. There was no love involved, it was a matter of founding a family, nothing more. Romance and love was for the Kabuki theatre or for the concubines, both male or female. A man was never considered eithere "gay" or "straight" with a strict fronteer in between the two. Sex had nothing to do with morals nor with family matters, it was part of culture, of enjoying life, like gastronomy and fashion.
That is why in big corporation business, men are supposed to be married, not single nor only married to an other man; it is a continuation of this Family Tradition. The age-free adoption rule is also born into this same Family Tradition: after all, you could lose your children to sickness, or have no sons, and then usually a man would adopt his son-in-law or an other boy, in order to have an heir. That could happen at any time, and it didn't need to be a child.
So the fact that gay marriage doesn't exist (yet, must I add) in Japan doesn't deny anything I said before. Some man turning ot to be gay suddenly doesn't mean shame for the family: Shame is something much more complicated in Asian cultures, especially family shame.

tbh...yes(￣∇￣")
whether or not the human survival depended on us, I'd still throw any guy down the stairs, no offence there. I'm only interested in like 2D ╮(￣▽￣)╭

Okay, I'll put on a helmet, to save me from concussions. (I'm no 'fatty', though) ... by the way, what's 2D? What's tbh? And how do you throw guys down the stairs without offense?

2D- (two dimensions) like a drawing or something, I hope you're getting the idea?
tbh means "To Be Honest".
and about the "no offence"i don't even remember what I meant when I wrote that ╮(￣▽￣)╭

Ha ha ha. You're a silly girl.
So, the only guys you like are drawn guys, not real ones of flesh & bones? I can appreciate that, you'd be surprised to know: I happen to be a comic drawer myself, so I 'd draw you a very handsome guy (much more than I'm myself), and let him come on to you. Bet you wouldn't kick him down the stairs! (oh, and it's not "offence" but "offenSe"! I'm old enough to be entitled to correct your English)

(●____●) oh whoops. do u mean it? can u draw me a guy? at least show me one of your previous works.(づ￣ ³￣)づ

I do mean it. mail me at [email protected] , and I'll send you some. I don't have a website for the moment.

ヾ(☆▽☆)

I can draw too. If you are interested babysaki. Devianart.com 2D guys are super hot.

just checked out your gallery
nice ;)

Hey, miss Crazay, why have I never heard from you?
By the way, merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

hehe I like my nickname.
I don't know, I just surf through this manga website every now and then nowadays~
You too, merry christmas and a happy new year!!!°˖ ✧◝(○ ヮ ○)◜✧˖ °

Your nickname is funny allright. But I meant: you wanted to see my drawings and I gave you an email address to show you some of it, but I never found any Miss Crayzay in my mailbox!
You not curious anymore?
I have some stuff sitting on Devianart too, nick there is Dyscalculie. But there aren't any handsome boys.
Thanks for the wishes back :-)

true, sorry if you felt neglected ●︿●
I'm no good at making conversations so I just left it at that. your email is still in my inbox........"Ross" :-D
also, is this the right deviantart account? http://dyscalculie.deviantart.com/

Yup, that's the one.
There's not much on it, just a few sketches. Up til now, I've been working days as an office clerk, 'cause drawing manga doesn't pay the bills over here; but as a result, being at the office all day I obviously didn't have time to draw manga. Still I had lots of ideas for stories, so I wrote scripts for other professional drawers. That's why there's not much of my own work on display to show for.
Now that I'm retired, since recently (that's how old I am already...) I 've time got to draw; so I'm going to start a series. Belgian BD requires much more work than Japanese manga: the backgrounds have to be drawn in carefully and correct in every detail, not just the same buildings you can buy ready-made on self-adhesive sheets and stick on your page, like it's done in manga; we couldn't get away with that. All the pages have to be colored, the technical aspects (anatomy, perspective...) have to be perfect, etcetera, else no editor will even look at your work much less publish it. So it'll be a while before it's finished, I'm in the research stage for the moment.
Seems to me you're very good at correspondence: you've got wit and a sense of humor; so if you can write in this site you can do it anywhere, including a mailbox. You don't need to be shy, not with a nickname like yours! :-D
Ross is my name, and mangasakka means comic drawer/writer. The name "mangaka" we and the Japanese use to call a comic drawer is for the drawer alone: if you're also the writer of the script, you're a mangasakka. 漫画作家. <- this is how it's written in kanji. In Belgium, we call it "strip" like in English, because it used to be published in small bands in newspapers, you know, the "funnies sheet", just like in America and everywhere else. In the half of my country where people speak French, they call it BD, short for "bande dessinée", drawn strip. We call it BD also, sometimes, because it's easy and Belgian BD's are famous. Tintin, Smurfs, Lucky Luke... Manga means "floating images". The first character means floating, ongoing, and the second "picture". I read that in a book about the Japanese language... yeah, resear ch, research, research...

wow, I live in my own little world. this is a lot to take in (≧∀≦)
As a kid I used to read something similar, it's called "Asterix and Obelix". I'm aware it's French not Belgian but I think it gives me a brief idea.
Now, I'm just gonna try to remember these terms.....

Yeah, Asterix and Obelix was half French, half Belgian, since the writer, René Goscinny, was French, and the drawer Uderzo was Belgian. It was very good, especially the first five or six albums. It is considered to be one of the best BD in the world, in the funny style. There is also realistic style, what in manga is called "seinen": there's a good example of it in here, scanlated in the seinen-category; it's called "Kogaratsu". Drawn by a Belgian BD-mangasakka, but set in Japan a long time ago, so the scanlators of this site mistook it for real Japanese work. Then, they put a comment on it that it was French. I couldn't help myself adding: No it's not! It's Belgian, not French!! ):-<{
I felt like we all do (Belgians, I mean) when American pretend french fries are originally French. Actually, french fries are Belgian too, the word "french" is derived from the verb "to french" which means cut into small wedges. I bet you didn't know that, eventhough you probably love to eat them!
It's never a good idea to stay inside your own little world. You are wellcome in the rest of the World! Never limit yourself!