Can Japan’s first gay dating reality show change hearts and minds?

Japan is the only country among the world’s richest democracies that has not legalized same-sex marriage. Very few celebrities are openly gay. Conservative groups are opposing legislative efforts to protect the LGBTQ community.

But now, Netflix is ​​introducing the country’s first same-sex dating reality series.

In the ten-plus episodes of “The Boyfriend,” which will be available in 190 countries beginning July 9, a group of nine men gather at a lavish beach house outside Tokyo. The format is reminiscent of Japan’s most popular romantic reality show, “Terrace House,” with its collection of tight-lipped and exceptionally polite cast members, overseen by a panel of jovial commentators.

The mood is wholesome and, above all, chaste. The men, ranging in age from 22 to 36, run a coffee truck by day and cook dinner by night, with occasional forays out for dates. One of the biggest (of the few) conflicts in the series revolves around the cost of buying raw chicken to make protein shakes for a club dancer trying to maintain his physique. Sex is rarely discussed, with friendship and self-improvement playing as prominent a role as romance.

In Japan, the handful of openly gay and transgender performers who regularly appear on television are typically flamboyant, effeminate comedic figures who live in exaggerated stereotypes. With “The Boyfriend,” executive producer Dai Ota said he wanted to “show same-sex relationships as they really are.”

Mr. Ota, who was also a producer of “Terrace House,” which was made by Fuji TV and licensed and distributed worldwide by Netflix, said he had “avoided the ‘let’s involve people who are causing problems’ approach.”

“The Boyfriend,” he said, represents diversity in a different way — with cast members of South Korean, Taiwanese and multi-ethnic descent.

Despite Japan lagging behind in LGBTQ rights, Mr. Ota said the show is not intended to offer overt political or social commentary. Cast members were not discouraged from talking about the social challenges of being gay or bisexual in Japan, he said, but during the audition process he reminded potential contestants that “it will ultimately be streamed and reach a wide range of viewers will be able to hear those thoughts.”

Soshi Matsuoka, the founder of Fair, a Tokyo-based LGBTQ advocacy group who has watched the series, said its mere existence “shows a change in society.” But he said he wished the cast had talked more openly about their sexuality and the social context of Japan’s LGBTQ community.

While “The Boyfriend” may be the first same-sex reality dating show set in Japan, there are a growing number of queer dating shows, including “The Ultimatum: Queer Love,” also for Netflix; “I kissed a boy” And “I kissed a girl”on the BBC; “For the love of DILFSavailable on Apple TV+, and “His human” in South Korea.

Taiki Takahashi, a gay model and social media influencer who was the casting director for “The Boyfriend,” said he had “a lot of expectations and hopes” for the show.

“I won’t say we can change society,” he said in an interview at Netflix’s Tokyo office. “But I do want a lot of people to feel some kind of impact.”

About 50 men auditioned after Mr. Takahashi posted casting calls on social media and recruited from his own networks. He said he consciously “chose people who would be liked” and that he avoided men who “felt the pressure of ‘I have to become a certain character because I’m on TV’ or ‘because I’m gay, I have to act gay.’ .”

The shadow of Terrace House inevitably hangs over The Boyfriend. They share the same basic format, and one of the commentators – Yoshimi Tokui – has returned to the studio, where he and a host of television personalities dissect the interactions between the men on the show.

At the end of the fifth season of ‘Terrace House’, which became a worldwide hit, one of the cast members, Hana Kimura, a professional wrestler in Japan, took her own life. She left several suicide notes and had posted ominous notes on Twitter and Instagram before her death.

Her mother, Kyoko Kimura, has filed a lawsuit against Fuji TV and two other production companies, accusing them of failing to protect her daughter from defamatory comments and forcing her to behave on the show in a way that drew massive criticism online. Ms. Kimura is seeking nearly $1 million in damages.

Mr. Ota said Netflix has brought in mental health professionals to consult with the cast and “create a production environment where no one gets hurt.” He said Netflix has conducted background checks on each of the cast members and that after the show airs, “we will take care of them if they have even the slightest fear.” Netflix did not make any of the cast members available for an interview.

although polls show While more than 70 percent of the Japanese public supports the legalization of same-sex relationships, gays and transgender people continue to face discrimination and hate speech.

Ms. Kimura, 47, said in a video interview that she knew from her daughter’s experience that young people new to the international world “can’t imagine what it would be like to receive hundreds or thousands of defamatory comments every day from all over the world.” world to receive.”

“The reality TV format itself is dangerous,” she said. “And especially in Japan, where few people have a detailed understanding of the existence of LGBTQ people.”

Durian Lollobrigida, a drag queen who is one of five commentators on “The Boyfriend,” said he wanted to join the show to “protect” the cast members.

“I thought it wouldn’t be good if heterosexual people who are in the majority just watched gay men mingling,” Lollobrigida, 39, said. “So I thought it was necessary to have someone there to act as an interpreter.”

Once filming started, he felt comfortable with his fellow commentators and realized, “I didn’t have to worry about that.”

Even without explicit political advocacy, the show could have a subtle effect on social attitudes, Mr. Lollobrigida said. “In order to get different LGBTQ+ rights, it’s obviously important to raise our voices and protest,” he said. “But at the same time, I think it’s important to normalize it through entertainment.”

Whether the show lays the groundwork for eventual political change is questionable, says Jennifer Robertson, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Michigan. often written about LGBTQ culture in Japan.

She acknowledged that the sweet, low-drama cast members can be heartwarming. In many ways, they offer an idealized contrast to “heteronormative couples bickering about cleaning the kitchen and children,” Ms. Robertson said. In fact, several of them — not just the professional chef in the cast — appear to be talented home cooks, and they all work to keep the house clean, qualities not typically associated with most men in Japan.

But if the aim was to encourage less tolerant Japanese viewers to be more accepting of gay and bisexual men, Ms. Robertson added, she wondered whether such people would watch a program like “The Boyfriend” at all.

“Making a show cuter to garner support among people who are likely already LGBTQ supportive will not provide any impetus to the political ratification of gay marriage,” she said.