And they won a huge student business competition. Together they planned a wedding and life services company for the queer community. One day a friend - the only other friend he had who was openly gay - said he wanted to start a company to do same-sex weddings. In college, Hayashi was doing research on the untapped LGBT market in Japan. And LGBT individuals often feel isolated. Schoolyard bullying and discrimination are known problems. And for years it wasn't uncommon to see a cross-dresser on TV giving fashion advice or a Japanese cartoon with gay characters.īut while being openly gay has been OK for famous people or anime characters, on an individual level, it’s been really hard to be out in Japan. Japan - unlike the US - doesn't have a Puritan history that says homosexuality is some kind of cardinal sin. That’s disgusting,” she said, according to Hayashi. That really hurt. 'I just kind of said it quickly, 'Hey, I’m gay,'' he recalls.
When 24-year-old Koki Hayashi first came out to his mom, he was a junior in college.
