Gender performance and migration experience of Filipino transgender women entertainers in Japan

Abstract

Background: Many unrepresented stories of Filipino transgender migrant workers in Japan are significant in Filipino trans women’s struggle for visibility.

Aim: This study aims to explore how migration and gender performance influence the gender affirmation of Filipino trans women or transpinay entertainers in Japan.

Method: This study draws on a qualitative approach using grounded theory to collect data between 2012 and 2018 through participant observations and semi-structured interviews in Manila, Cebu, and Japan. Through snowball sampling and ties with the LGBTQ community, 14 participants shared their narratives that revolved around their background, gender identity, visa and job application process, entertainment work, and relationships before, during, and after migration.

Results: The transpinays’ migration experience is influential in their gender affirmation as in Japan and upon their return to the Philippines. The transpinay entertainers migrate to Japan is not solely for economic reasons; they also seek sexual emancipation. Before moving to Japan, they negotiate their gender identity to pass the auditions and apply for an entertainer visa. During their migration, doing and undoing gender is woven into their lives with their intersecting subordinate identities as a Filipino transgender woman and a migrant worker, resulting into an intersectional invisibility. Their entertainer profile as a Filipino transgender woman is an embodiment of gendered performances and ethnicity. Transpinay entertainers returned several times or chose to stay in Japan because they were marginalized in their home country.

Conclusion: The transpinay entertainers provide a significant case for highlighting the temporal aspect of their gender performance and migration experience, in which their commitment toward entertainment work transforms over time. The migration experience in Japan indicates a positive outcome in their gender affirmation that does not necessarily lead to gender confirmation surgery.

Keywords:

• Entertainers in Japan
• Filipino transgender women
• gender performance
• intersectionality
• migration
• transpinay

Acknowledgments

I express my sincere gratitude to the participants for their trust and openness to share their stories. I would like to thank my professors and colleagues at the Graduate School of Asia Pacific, Waseda University, and the 2018 Dissertation Workshop on “Gender and Sexuality in Japan,” Center for Japanese Studies, University of Berkeley, for their insightful comments. Special thanks to my colleagues at the Center for English as a Lingua Franca, Tamagawa University, for their support. Thank you to the two anonymous reviewers for the critical comments and helpful suggestions.

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

The author has no conflict of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Haraguchi Memorial Asia Research Fund, Waseda University in 2015 and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) 20K12468.