I went to school with a girl who had traveled to Japan for a program she was in. She said they would get to interview people with this list of standard stuff in Japanese and they’d ask stuff in English to help learn the language, and at the end they got to ask a couple of questions that weren’t on the list just for more fun and practice. She learned how to ask “do you know anyone who is openly gay?” And she said that most people she asked just said no but a few people would burst out laughing and tell her “there are no gay people in Japan”.

That was in like 2006-2007ish. It seems like it was such a long time ago (especially for me now, looking back on the high school days hah). But as far as social and political changes go, it isn’t nearly as long ago as it feels.