National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA)
Campaign based in Tokyo Subways

MISSION:

• Destigmatize Queerness 
• Humanize LGBTQ+ community
• Make queer spaces and present in Tokyo
• Bring awareness to NQAPIA resources and work

PROBLEM:

• How do you get conservative Japanese citizens to listen to an issue that they are conditioned to ignore?
• How controversal should a campaign be in order to catch attention and explosure?

AUDIENCE:

• Conservative Tokyo
• Elderly
• Japanese Traditional Thinkers

LANGUAGE:

• Japanese

ART DIRECTION:

• Visual: Bold, Present, Beautiful, Cultural
• Voice: Emotional, Hopeful, Human

In the pictures shown is Ebizo Ichikawa, a well-known Kabuki actor, as himself, in a male role and a female role. Kabuki has traditionally been a male-exclusive theater; Kabuki actors will play the roles of all Genders and all personalities, expressing it through makeup, body language, and language. Kabuki is a dramatic and expressive theatrical art, similar to Drag.

The Onnagata (female role played by a male) and Wakashū (feminine young male/Japan third gender) were banned in ~1629 and ~1652, respectively, due to the shogunate beliefs that it was corrupting public morals; the ban was lifted years later.

I made two graphic illustrations to be the visual base of the campaign, both displaying a Kabuki actor either putting makeup, or dancing as a onnagata (female role). 

Below you can see some explorations with text and space:

I focused on empathy, human connection, and communication and developed a simple idea of speech bubbles.

I experimented with different typefaces and how they all had their distinct voice. While prioritizing legibility, I decided to make multiple anonymous speech bubbles with confessions from LGBTQ+ youth. Many of these mention the feeling of disconnect from family, isolation from others, fear of rejection, and emotional effects of conservative culture and the taboo nature of LGBTQ+ conversations in Japanese society.