Musuta Kusaka's Everyday Journey with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Japan

I think this event is rare nationwide.

Its name is ” Gradation Campus .” It is organized by a student group called “WataPro,” and is an event that promotes gender and sexual diversity.

I collect information on the schedule of diversity (DE&I) events and content from all over the country every day. The number is about 480 in the past year .

However, I don’t know of any other events that are run by students on a DIY basis, take over public spaces, set up outdoor booths and stages, and promote the event on the street.

The main feature of this “Gradation Campus” is that it can be enjoyed by families. This is also unusual. There is a stamp rally, cotton candy distribution, pop stage performances, accurate yet easy-to-understand talk sessions, and more.

Children are happy, and parents take home a learning experience. With such ideas, the campus was overflowing with families last year. The student staff who run the campus are also kind to children. I remember when my daughter was lost on the stamp rally, they crouched down to give her a hint.

For my daughter, “that cotton candy festival” meant Gradient Campus. Wanting to experience that atmosphere once again and to see the variety of people there, we headed to the venue again this year. The location was the same as last year, Zou-no-hana Park in Yokohama.

The day was the last Sunday of September. Due to the rain, it wasn’t as lively as last year, but the students’ enthusiasm and hospitality were still strong. This year, too, they bent down to eye level with my daughter and smiled. “Do you want to do a stamp rally? You can exchange it for cotton candy!”

My daughter received the card and completed the LGBTQAPXCH (in no particular order) stamps. She also received cotton candy. And she said, “I know L and G. There’s a boy in my class who likes boys, right?” Of course there are tall kids and short kids. That’s just how natural she is. I can rely on the reality of a second grader.

I don’t usually have many opportunities to talk with my daughter about love and sex. There’s no easy opportunity. In reality, it’s the girls who need this knowledge. That’s why this event was so precious to us as a parent and child. I’m glad we came again this year.

My daughter eats cotton candy in seconds to avoid it melting in the rain. Over her back, I see a flag fluttering in the sea breeze. A blue, pink, and white border flag. It was a symbol of transgender people. And at her feet, a labor consultation booth.

Come to think of it, I wrote S-kun’s resume. It was about 15 years ago. S-kun was my mother’s boyfriend, a trans man. We lived together for about 6-7 years.

“Musuta, you’re a writer, right? Can you write me a resume?”
That’s what he said. In old Shonan dialect. S-kun put the paper on the dining table. There was only one line, “Worked in apparel from 19XX to 2009”. The rest was blank like a desert.

“You know you have to ask a professional, right?” “You can do that.” “Then Haagen-Dazs. ” “How about Garigari-kun?” “Don’t haggle, manager.” Even though he worked in apparel, he was a store manager. Two stores in the suburbs of Tokyo. Just one step away from becoming an area manager. To me, he seemed like a capable guy, but in fact, he was full of anxiety.

Would he be able to continue working until retirement? Would his salary increase properly? And would he be able to support my mother, who would become a grandmother someday? In the middle of the Heisei era, it was a common belief that the limit for changing jobs was 35 years old. “It’s about time for me to do it too.”

I pulled the pure white paper over to me and immediately began the interview. What should be written in a resume is not the job, but the skill history. And you want three, not just one. Having changed jobs before, I feel like I gave that advice. “So, let’s list S’s strengths in chronological order .” “
I only have a junior high school education, right?” he said, laughing at the ceiling. “Have you ever asked anyone for advice on finding a job or changing jobs?” “Yeah! Hahaha.”
This time he put his hands on his hips, puffed out his chest, and laughed loudly.

He always had a hunched back. He coordinated his outfit with a jacket or oversized clothes. It was all to flatten his bust with a sports bra. So I think he trusted me in his own way by not hiding his chest. Even with me, he looked away with a fake smile. It was proof that he was very intimidated.

Change of strategy. I took my PC out of my bag and started up Illustrator. There are no good people who say, “I’ll do it cheaply because we’re friends.” But S-kun was family. I decided to make a resume that only family could make.

I started asking him about his first career. “After graduating from junior high school, when was your first job, and where?” “Well, after that I got my license as a hairdresser.”
“So your highest level of education is not junior high school, but hairdresser school. ” “Yeah.” S-kun took a bite from a Marlboro menthol softbox. His pride was obvious.

He grew up in a single-parent household, and there was no money for him to go to high school. Moreover, his mother could not accept his gender, and stubbornly continued to call him S-ko. He had nowhere to go and no place to be. S-kun, who was 15 or 16 years old, started living with his friends immediately after graduating from junior high school. He

worked part-time jobs from morning to night, and further cut back on living expenses to get his hairdresser license.
“How many years were you a hairdresser?” “It didn’t last a year,” S-kun said, leaning his chin on his hand and smoke coming out of his nose as he laughed. I didn’t need to ask to know that something he couldn’t put into words was smoldering inside him. “Don’t worry. You don’t need to write things that don’t appeal to you.” Families must give people confidence to live. That’s me.

Even if it’s only for a year, a hairdresser and an apparel store clerk have one thing in common: they meet a lot of people. Many of them are first-time encounters. And in both cases, they can instantly see the intersection between the customer’s preferences and what suits them from limited clues. Moreover, the more experience they gain, the higher their accuracy. This is a great skill.

“So, how many people have you served so far?” “Hmm, a few thousand, right?” No, not many. There must be at least about 10,000. Let’s assume that there are three customers a day, which is a low estimate. A year is about 250 business days. If you continue that for 17 years from the age of 18 after graduating from a vocational school to the age of 35, a simple calculation will give you 12,750 people.
Even if you subtract regular customers and paid holidays, the number will be more than 10,000.

[ I have proposed styling to more than 10,000 people through my work as a hairdresser and apparel store clerk. He has the experience and know-how to instantly identify and respond to customer needs and characteristics.]

I typed this sentence at the top of the work history section. The first strength. “This is something that S-kun has earned by working hard at the store, and it’s a weapon that no one can imitate.” “Wow. I’m starting to think I’m amazing!” He gets into it when he gets into it. That was S-kun’s good point.

The second strength was quite simple. So. What happened as a result of his hard work? He became a store manager. And now he is in charge of two stores. “Even so, wasn’t it quick to become a store manager?” “I started working early. I only have a junior high school diploma.” “No. Even so.” ” Are you the youngest in the history of the current store? Apparently it’s the shortest.”

S-kun also has a story. His self-esteem just couldn’t keep up with the speed at which his efforts bore fruit.

[Promoted to store manager at the shortest and youngest age in the history of his previous company. In charge of operating two stores. From budget management to management, he has a wealth of business experience beyond his age.]

I made this the heading for the last paragraph of his resume, that is, the section on his current career.

Now, the last of S-kun’s strengths was a problem.
“Hey S-kun, what happened with your resume?” He
didn’t need to say everything to convey my concern.
“I gave the thumbs up to a woman.” Of course, that’s what he meant. All I could do was nod. But the photo on his resume made it immediately clear that he was not what we would call a “gender-normative woman.” Tie. Soft mohawk. No makeup.

I don’t think the word “transgender” was as widely used then as it is now. I wonder if the term “gender identity disorder,” which S-kun identified as at the time and which should no longer be used, was common. Society confused it with homosexuality, and mocked it, calling it lesbian or otokonobesu.

If I wrote “male,” I was told it was a false statement, and if I wrote “female,” I was looked at strangely. I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want S-kun to be judged only by his resume. The real him wasn’t there. But I couldn’t think of a third strength. I changed the topic.

“Let’s use a photo of your current workplace.” S-kun was liked by people. By colleagues and customers. I thought that this would be an appealing point, or rather, a source of reassurance at the next company. “Send me more than you can. I’ll choose.” “Is it okay to have photos on a resume?” S-kun was skeptical, but he sent me photos of his workplace one by one to my PC.

Sales floor, exhibition, drinking party, wedding. Images arrived one after another. As I was concentrating on the display, I heard the sound of a flip phone folding above my head. Click. I looked up and met S-kun’s eyes. “Musuta, make a note of the third one. ” “Here you go.”

” I have a unique personality that is different from others. Because of me, there are things I can understand and solve for people’s feelings.

This is it. I’m going to sneak around and these guys will call me a lame manager.” He then added, “Also, if you hide your complexes, they’ll stand out. Show them off instead. This is the basis of fashion.” The way I live my life is my last strength. I added a slightly larger Q number to the end of my career column.

Later. I carefully selected the font, wrote the entire text, and laid out the images. I adjusted the spacing between characters, the line spacing, and the margins in detail, and printed it out on high-quality paper. It was just a single A4 page, but I think it was a beautiful resume. It was the beauty of S-kun’s life. He received it as if he were receiving a certificate of commendation.

As a result, I was surprised that my job change was decided so easily. And it was a job-changing agent.
Apparently, when I showed him my resume, he scouted me because he thought I was interesting. Is that even possible? “Thank you Musuta! So I’m making my debut as a businessman too!”

And once again, he returned to the apparel industry.
I don’t think it had been a year. I don’t remember why. Maybe I didn’t ask. Anyway, S-kun told me, “I quit,” and he was still laughing. All I could do was prepare dinner and wait for him to come home.

If only there had been a counseling center nearby that understood sexuality back then. If only he had been able to talk to a professional without relying on me. How far would S-kun’s potential have expanded? I imagined him sitting in a booth at the Gradient Campus. His Shonan dialect, in full swing in Yokohama. His hunched back. His soft mohawk swaying in the sea breeze. I hope that

next year’s event will be sunny. And that as many people as possible will be able to work in a way that is true to themselves. That’s what I hoped for.

By the way. According to a survey published by Nijiiro Diversity, a certified NPO, in 2008, trans men were more likely to work in service jobs or blue-collar jobs than other people (Iwanami Booklet “Transgender and Gender Change” 2024). This overlaps exactly with S-kun. I hate the term blue-collar, though. In 2020, the zodiac cycle came full circle. The results of a survey published jointly by the organization and the ICU Gender Studies Center did not show much change in the trend (see p. 28 of the document below). It seems that employment options for transgender people are unfairly narrowed. I may be unwittingly taking away a position that someone else was meant to take. I will try not to forget that.

(End)