Here’s me making poor life decisions so you don’t have to!
Category: YouTube Videos
LGBTQIA+ Groups in Japan that Need Your Help!
Due to the cancellation of many pride events, such as Tokyo Rainbow Pride, many communities are left without their usual donation funds to get through the year. These donations are essential to community groups that serve the LGBTQIA+ communities in Japan. It can go towards HIV/AIDs awareness, helping LGBTQ refugees, and so much more.
I’m representing one of them, as the Stonewall Japan Kanto East Block Leader, but there are other organizations who need you to donate, too.
Stonewall Japan: https://stonewalljapan.org/donate/
Stonewall Japan is a community group for LGBTQIA+ people living in Japan. We intend to provide a safe space for people to network with others and provide information and resources. We do this by:
- Facilitating an active group on Facebook
- Holding events
- Sending out Block Emails
- Answering questions via email
- Maintaining resources on our website
Help Us Sue The Japanese Government for Marriage Equality: https://www.gofundme.com/f/3p65eg
From the GoFundMe Project Description: “We — Elin McCready and Midori Morita — have been married for 20 years, originally filing paperwork in Japan, where we live. Elin filed a petition to change her name and gender in the US in October 2018 and changed this information on her passport. However, Japan has refused to recognize her gender transition on some documents, because doing so would result in de facto acceptance of same-sex marriage, which Japan doesn’t currently allow. This means that some of Elin’s paperwork says M and some F, even just within Japan, which is as far as we know a unique situation, and our marital status is ultimately unclear.
We are crowdfunding for a lawsuit to sue the Japanese government and get this situation fixed. The goals are (1) to fight for recognition of Elin’s transition and get all her paperwork consistent with her gender, and (2) to ensure that they recognize our marriage in the process. This will result in the Japanese government admitting a same-sex marriage, which will be a big step toward full legal status of same-sex marriage, and possibly even become the legal challenge which forces the government to make marriage possible for everyone. Please help us fix our situation and by doing so help us make things better for everyone here!”
Nijiiro Kazoku (Rainbow Family): https://queerfamily.jimdofree.com
Bank Transfer Info- ゆうちょ銀行 10170-83637011 名義 にじいろかぞく
This NPO is specifically dedicated to supporting gay, lesbian, trans, and other rainbow families! They even have LGBTQIA+ friendly books for sale for kids. Unlike most other NPO’s, this one isn’t as well known.
Equal Marriage Alliance: http://emajapan.org/#
The EMA is fighting to get same sex marriage recognized in Japan. It’s also helping to support people in same sex partnerships have their legality recognized when they encounter trouble with companies that won’t see their partnership as legitimate.
Also, there’s a movement getting started to support Nichome in Shinjuku. For those of you who don’t know, Nichome is the gay district of Tokyo (and also essentially my second home). I gave only 1,000 yen, but every little bit counts towards helping the community!
You can go to the Change.org petition here to sign to help the businesses receive the aid they need from the government, or to help chip in some money to keep these at risk businesses afloat.
Please consider helping out! Or if not, please like and share so the word can spread. Thank you!
News from Japan: Two Vlogs for the Price of One Blog
Recently, friends and family have been asking a bunch of questions about the situation here in Japan. Specifically, a lot of Tokyo people I know are left confused and bewildered by the information we’re getting. I decided to hit YouTube with what information I knew, even going so far as to put up two videos two days in a row (which for me is pretty intense).
I ended up with my longest video to date, clocking in a about 42 minutes. It’s mostly a response video to a bunch of misinformation happening about COVID19 in Japan, as well as reacting to a recent press briefing given my Tokyo Governor Yumiko Koike.
I was harsh in this video on Koike because I felt like the advice to avoid nightclubs and bars to be really empty and useless. Also, I think everyone was frustrated that she didn’t do a lockdown, because at the time even though I knew it wouldn’t be a lockdown like other countries, she could still punish businesses for operating in a time of crisis.
Turns out I was wrong, as the next video-which is about half the time of the previous video, you’re welcome- I talk about how the powers of the governors is actually really limited in scope, to the point they kind of don’t really have any legal control to make people stop doing much without the national Diet making a call.
When it comes to a national emergency sort of lockdown, that’s when transportation can be shut down with amended laws. The Influenze and Infectious Disease Laws were both amended in March to allow for more stringent measures to be used. Now, if Shinzo Abe announces a complete lockdown on April 2nd, the rumored date for it, then he can grant powers to the governors and city halls to take out public transport. If people can’t get to work by train, bus, or car, odds are then businesses will have to be shut down.
In other news, I also talked about the JET Programme attendees are pissed at CLAIR and MEXT for not assisting them in this time of crisis, so much so that the US Embassy received complaints and put out a response.
The Tokyo Board of Education is keeping schools closed until after May 6th, as in after Golden Week. For ALTS and teachers, that means emailing and calling up people to see how your schedule will look in the coming month.
And finally, the Japan Post will stop sending mail to certain countries in the coming month due to airline restrictions.
Those are basically the main points. Hopefully soon we’ll get our lockdown, and if so, the increasing cases will slow down. However, I am worried that as this point the cases have increased to a point where mass spreading is bound to continue for the next couple of weeks, if not longer. Japan is starting off like New York, but hopefully it won’t have the same outcome. We’ve been lucky so far, I pray it holds, even though I know logically it’ll probably get worse before it gets better.
We’ll see how things go, I guess.
Paternity Harassment Case in Japan Needs Your Help #patahara
If you live in Japan, then you’re no stranger to the endless working hours demanded by companies to their employees. The expectation of “work-life” balance is a pipe dream under most big companies, as they expect their employees to put everything aside for “company loyalty.” Parents in particular experience a specific form of harassment called “mata-hara” for women and “pata-hara” for men.
Respectively, “mata-hara” stands for “maternity harassment.” Women are often expected to give up their jobs after maternity leave, or are harassed for taking such leave in the first place. For men, “pata-hara” stands for “paternity harassment.” Men are often pressured not to take this leave at all. However, both maternity and paternity leave are protected under Japanese law.
Glen Wood is asking for help in his battle against the corporate giant Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co. (MUMSS). After his child was born pre-mature, he asked to take paternity leave in order to be with his baby, but his leave was rejected. Soon after, he said he experienced harassment from the company for taking leave. Mitsubishi UFJ has even tried to slander his name in order to win against him in court. See the video below for the full story:
To paraphrase the last of the video, Mr. Wood now needs help from the public. On July 5th, there will be a public hearing, and he will need as much support as the public can give him. Whether foreign or Japanese, if anyone has other stories of para-hara from this company, or harassment or abuses of power in general, your voices are needed at this hearing.
Mr. Wood had all his proposed testimonies against Mitsubishi UFJ rejected by the court judge. Without the voices from the public, he will be speaking alone.
If you wish to speak with him, you can find more information here: https://www.patahara.com/our-story.
More background information:
#BookReview: My Brother’s Husband
Women’s Day March #Vlog
All Good News! Leopalace Update #vlog
Alrighty! So the most important part of the vid is that I don’t gotta move, which is awesome. Watch to see if you’re interested in the buildings affected and the other bits of good news I’ve got going on in my life. Please and thanks!
Am I Gonna Have to Move Again? #vlog
Oh yeah, I Did A New Years Vlog, Oops
Legit forgot to share the video, whoops! Anyways, in this video I just talk about my goals and dreams for 2019. Enjoy!
If You Wanna Get Caught Up…
So I’ve been vlogging a little bit more than usual, and my channel has been growing a little bit.
Basically in this video, I talk about how unhappy I was with the old way I was doing things and revamping the ideas on the channel.
Actually managed to do a semi-daily thing for a week, just talking about different things as they happened in my life.
And here we have the BEST THING I’VE EVER BOUGHT AS AN ADULT WITH MY OWN MONEY!!!
Ranting about the rainy weather and typhoons. Hahaahahaha, little did I know that I would have 5 more after that.
Hello other typhoon, how are you? Man, these past couple of months had some brutal weather. Really, really tired of rain at this point.
Eating things I shouldn’t, also Mondays are cursed.
This one got the most views and hate. A LOT of people came out to defend Japan, which is normal. A lot of times whenever you talk critically about Japan, you’ll have tons of people try to tell you how wrong you are about the racism in the country. And most of those people DON’T ACTUALLY LIVE IN JAPAN, so it’s super frustrating. Somehow this little thing accumulated over 1,000 views, I guess because it was a hot topic at the time. Oh well, opinion unchanged (actually Japanese media is already proving me right in some instances, but what can you do?).
Anyways, hope that gets you caught up!
From Kentucky to Tokyo 