Japanese → English transcript

Did you hear that? What? Like,

whether you actively want something like a partnership or marriage,

or if you want kids, there are people like that too.

Yeah, yeah, like“ I want to do that,

I want to someday”— is that okay? Why? Huh, because I want kids?

Oh, so wanting kids is the goal?

I do want kids. Yeah, I want kids, I want to raise them.

I never thought I’d hear those words from you, even as a joke…

You’re the one I’d most expect to be into parenting. You seem like you’d hate kids.

No, I don’t hate them.

I used to work as a cram school teacher.

Oh, right. I taught at a cram school because I like kids. Oh, right.

I kind of want to show that.

Like, I want to be able to be by their side if something happens. For example,

if, you know, something happens to me… Like a sudden accident— Yeah. That happens.

Even if I pass away or something,

I’d want those things to go to that person.

So I guess I feel like it would be nice if getting married could

guarantee those things. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like, to have it legally recognized.

It’s not so much“ I want recognition,” but more that if something happens,

I can rush over, and with inheritance and all that,

there’s the peace of mind of being able to leave everything to them.

And with that peace of mind, I want to be in a relationship, to have a partner.

Because I want to see that kind of future, so with my partner, I kind of…

Yeah, I think about being together,

like forming a partnership or getting married.

Same here, I mean we’ve been together for fifteen years, and…

We hadn’t used a partnership system.

Oh, really? But the reason is that neither of us has come out to our families.

So if something happened… and I rushed to the hospital,

I wouldn’t be able to explain. I couldn’t say,“ We’re partners,

we’re in a partnership.” And if he hasn’t told them,

and I go and tell his family on my own… Yeah, they’d be shocked.

That would be outing him. So I couldn’t say anything.

But thinking about the future, well, I’ve already decided I’m going to

come out, and… for my next relationship— well, if someone like that appears,

I do want to do it. Yeah. Right now, with partnerships…

I don’t really understand how it works in Japan.

Is there a law? Even within the same prefecture, it can differ.

Like, Shibuya Ward allows it, and it depends on the ward or local government.

But since it is only an ordinance legally, by the state,

as an established system it does not really hold up, it does not.

So basically, it means it does not exist?

Well, there are some things you can do by entering a partnership,

but there are far more things you absolutely cannot do. Compared to straight people,

it is super limited. Right, right, right,

so I see, it does not really have much force, right? Not really. And—?

I had not heard about Yuuhi’s,

but that would totally get into my own field of expertise.

So I do not really want to talk about it much, but— no, talk, keep it brief,

at two percent, explain it with two percent effort, please, talk at two percent.

I will keep it brief. So, I have Thai nationality now,

and just this year same- sex marriage was legalized there. Oh, really? Oh, wow.

So if we actually wanted to get married, we totally could, you know.

But since I live in Japan,

I do not get any protections within Japan, though in Thailand I would.

And then when it comes to, like,

are we actually going to move there,

that raises a whole different issue,

so when we want to share our assets— I kind of feel like it ends up

serving as a way to formalize that promise. So in conclusion,

I do not really have much of a sense of“ romance” about it.

Yeah. More and more

gay couples our age are steadily doing the partnership thing, though.

In Japan, yeah. But what they

always say is they did it to rent a place when they moved in together, like,

it is about the system. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is basically only for that.

I feel like I would probably do a partnership in that same sort of way.

That is about it. What I want to say is really the same as Hiroe,

so it is not about romance or anything.

It’s not really about, like, romance.

For me it’s a simple“ is there a benefit then or not” kind of judgment.

I’m the complete opposite, maybe.

Yeah, like, I honestly don’t care about the system.

I’m like,“ I’ll get married because I just normally like them, isn’t that fine?”

It’s not exactly that kind of visualization, but you know, by doing that,

our mutual understanding and stuff really does… Yeah, that’s true, it changes.

Like, I mean, I do want to have a wedding. Yeah, in the end that’s it.

Ah. But that kind of thing is lovely.

I totally want to have a wedding, invite around five hundred people.

I am absolutely inviting five hundred people.

Yeah. I’ll take like two years to plan it, seriously. Seriously.

I think having a dress code and stuff would be nice,

I still think about it a bit even now. If I dated someone like that,

I’d really want to make that happen for them. Ah, right, yeah. So, do you want kids?

Me, yeah, I do. I want them, if possible I want them. You do? Oh, really.

I mean, there are financial issues and all.

Ah. Yeah, true, when you put it like that.

If I don’t think about the really realistic problems, then I do want them.

That’s fine, that’s fine. Yeah, yeah.

I actually once had a huge fight over which way to go, with a friend.

Like with a guy friend? Not a guy. Like, adoption or a surrogate mother,

and whether to pass on my own blood, that kind of thing, it got really…

I get it, it’s hard.

I’ve seriously thought about it too, I’ve thought about that a lot, for a while.

Like the other person’s race and all. There’s a lot, right,

like their age and stuff.

I even researched it a ton up to that point. But, you know, I was like…

For example, if I had a certain level of financial leeway,

I was thinking I’d want to raise a child even without a partner. Even alone. I see.

It’s not necessarily

that I have this strong desire to raise a child with a partner.

That’s really interesting.

Like, wow, wow. So it’s not for social welfare or anything,

more for your own growth,

like for your own growth. Oh, I see. I think it would be difficult if I were alone.

Maybe I don't think so. Can I really make that child happy by myself?

I can't take on that responsibility alone right now.

No matter how much money I have, no matter how much money I have, LGBT people

are actually a minority. So, among them, two men are adopting and raising

children together,

and I think that's a wonderful thing, but the child Well, I don't know how to

answer when someone asks me why I don't have a mother.

I'll answer that honestly.

It's something that happens often in foreign movies. When I think about it,

I wonder if it's really true.

I end up wondering whether that’s even right or not, or… yeah. Because, well,

of course you’d think about that, so I— When I said I was doing it for myself,

I meant I’m not doing it thinking it’s for my kids. That’s the point I’m aware of.

I’m saying that knowing that. But in the end, you can’t betray

the experiences you’ve had, right? So even if the environment you grew up in,

for example, wasn’t“ normal,” you know… In the end, at some point, you just have

to accept it yourself and live with it.

Rather, I end up thinking the problem lies with the society that

defines that as not normal, so we want everyone to know that we exist here.

And just the same,

we want people to know that there are those kinds of relationships,

and that there are kids who were raised that way too.

Letting everyone know might become a source of hope for someone, you know?

Yeah, it’s starting to be like that.

It’s the same with history, right?

People in the past used to do it in secret,

same- sex marriage and homosexuality,

and all that kept getting exposed and exposed.

I mean, because we can do this now like this,

our kids will probably end up doing it too, yeah, unless someone takes the lead.

People’s way of looking at us will never change, right?

Yeah. To go even further— do you want me to go further? Want me to go further?

Want me to go further? No, it’s fine, Eee- chan, I want to hear it,

I want to hear it, sorry, sorry,

sorry. That’s not what I meant, the topic got sulky,

it’s fine, really, I’m done, I’m done, right, it’s fine, it’s fine.

Go ahead. It’s fine, I was just messing around, it went on for so long.