qualitative study

Numerous qualitative studies have been conducted to understand sexual minorities, but further individualized research is necessary to capture the complexity of this group. In Japan, narrative studies have been conducted on a single person. However, the individuality of these narratives is unclear because they has not been compared with previous studies. In this study, a gay man (A) was interviewed and their narrative was compared with previous studies to understand the meaning of his own sexual orientation separately. As a result, there were complex narratives toward sexual orientation that are difficult to explain in previous studies. One of the influences on the generation of this narrative could be that he was born into an 'old-fashioned' house and was 'expected' to marry. This narrative was similar to that of the Asian culture (Fukuyama & Ferguson, 2000). Because meeting these “expectations” negatively affected their self-identified as “gay” but positively affected their identity being born in that culture, the evaluations and attitudes were complicated due to the lack of coherence. Since there were few references to the influence of culture in Japan, A's narratives may have been highly individualized. Thus, further research on the narratives of sexual minorities is needed.