Over the past year or so, British TV has undergone a sort of renaissance when it comes to same-sex dating on reality shows. The Ultimatum: Queer Love. I Kissed a Boy. I Kissed a Girl. The odd gay couple thrown into the mix on Married at First Sight. And now, it seems, Japan is following suit with The Boyfriend on Netflix, the country’s first same-sex reality show. It sees nine men gather in a luxury beach house outside Tokyo for a month in order to, hopefully, meet a new boyfriend. Or maybe just become friends! This is, as we’re very sweetly reminded from the off, “a story of love and friendship”.
It’s worth pointing out here that The Boyfriend feels relatively groundbreaking in comparison to its UK counterparts (which themselves felt weirdly delayed). Japan still hasn’t legalised same-sex unions – despite the fact 72% of the public support such a move. They have very few gay or queer celebrities (when J-pop idol Shinjiro Atae came out as gay last year, it marked a rare instance in which such an announcement didn’t mean a huge loss in public and monetary support). And, in Japan, it’s just not as common to publicly talk about sexuality and queerness more generally – but, as The Boyfriend indicates, the tide appears to be turning.
