September 14, 2014 – October 31, 2014
Opening times: 8:30-17:30
Place: Hirado Dutch Trading Post (Okubo 2477, Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture)
Entry fee: 300 yen
At the Hirado Dutch Trading Post, Japan’s first western style building, exchanges between Japan and the Netherlands flourished and is now once again a place where cultures and new ideas meet.
Hirado flourished as an international trading port and through the trade with the Netherlands it took in some of the latest European cultural trends and values at the time. In modern times the Netherlands has been at the forefront of LGBT rights by being the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriages. After 400 years the Hirado Dutch Trading Post is building new bridges between the Netherlands, Hirado, and other parts of the world on the theme of LGBT.
The Hirado Dutch Trading Post aims to increase awareness and understanding of sexual minorities in order to contribute to a society in which LGBT`s can be themselves and live with pride.
(LGBT is the abbreviation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.)
【Exhibits】
LGBT Photo exhibition:
– The Netherlands: Pride Photo Award (www.pridephotoaward.org)
Winning contributions of the annual international photo contest on sexual and gender diversity organized by this Dutch NPO
– Japan: Koji Kinoshita Photo exhibition. Born in Kumamoto in 1972. He has been organising a yearly photo exhibition since 2006. We show his latest photography project about people from the LGBT community `So Many Colors Photo Session`.
There will also be other panels and short video fragments about the history and the current situation of the LGBT community in the Netherlands, USA, Taiwan and Japan.
More information at The Kingdom of the Netherlands Embassy page.
What can I do with a B.A. in Japanese Studies? 
So awesome! I wish Japan was more open about LGBT issues! I mean, Japan’s got Hard Gay and Kojima Yoshio and all the gay stuff that men (and women) do on a daily basis. Why not???