One of my good friends who was working in Japan in the 1980s, recently had a dinner for six of his American friends from that era who were in Japan.
They are gay, though they were not out of the closet at the time, and today they are back in the U.S., all financial successes and highly respected men.
I knew many similar people in that period in Japan.
What was so unique about these men? It appears to me that these were highly educated, very talented people who were forced to go to another country where they were comfortable with their sexuality. Japan is a comfortable place, and always has been, for gay men and women.
I won't go into details about why, only someone who understands Japan would understand the nature of sexuality in that country.
I must look back on the era in which gay people were just publicly recognizing their own sexual orientation because of the highly visible gay world in San Francisco and New York, yet could not enter the management level in the labor force and be comfortable.
I'm glad these men were able to come back to the United States and provide their extraordinary services to their home country.