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Sexuality Research and Social Policy
Published in: Sexuality Research and Social Policy 1/2024

09-09-2023

LGBTQ Young Adults’ Attitudes Toward Workplace Antidiscrimination Policies: A Cross-National Analysis Between the USA and Japan

Authors: Koji Ueno, Lacey J. Ritter, Melinda D. Kane, Skyler Bastow, Rachael Dominguez, Jason V. D’Amours

Published in: Sexuality Research and Social Policy | Issue 1/2024

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Abstract

Introduction

Previous US studies showed that LGBTQ workers played a key role in persuading their employers to include LGBTQ workers as a protected category in antidiscrimination policies. These studies tended to assume that LGBTQ workers are generally supportive of the policy change, but the assumption has not been directly examined. Further, the assumption may be unrealistic for countries where LGBTQ worker activism is uncommon. To address these gaps in the literature, this study investigates how national contexts shape LGBTQ workers’ attitudes toward antidiscrimination policies by comparing the USA and Japan.

Methods

The study analyzes data from in-depth interviews with LGBTQ young adult workers. The data were collected in the USA between 2011 and 2020 (n = 27) and in Japan between 2018 and 2022 (n = 29).

Results

The analysis reveals that US LGBTQ workers strongly support antidiscrimination policies by expressing a sense of collective identity as LGBTQ people and their trust in formal rules. In contrast, Japanese LGBTQ workers question the necessity and effectiveness of antidiscrimination policies by interpreting policy implementation as employers’ PR performance and by underscoring their need to develop interpersonal trust with colleagues while staying closeted.

Conclusions

US and Japanese workers’ contrasting views on antidiscrimination policies reflect national differences in how LGBTQ people experience and cope with social marginalization in each country.

Policy Implications

We make policy recommendations as to how employers and governments in the USA and Japan can support LGBTQ workers while addressing limitations of antidiscrimination policies that LGBTQ workers perceive in each country.
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Footnotes
1
Although both Japanese and US participants were between the age of 18 and 25 in their initial interviews, Japanese participants were younger than the US counterpart in their most recent interviews because Japanese data collection started later than the US data collection (2018 vs. 2011). In both Japanese and US samples, attitudes toward antidiscrimination policies were largely stable across waves within participants, suggesting that the age difference is unlikely to account for the attitudinal difference between the two countries.
 
2
We use pseudonyms to protect participants’ confidentiality. Participants’ race, age, and sexual and gender identities are based on the information that they provided at the time of the interviews.
 
3
“X-gender” is a common phrase in Japan that refers to nonbinary gender (Takeuchi, 2022). Some Japanese participants who identified as x-gender described their sexual identities as gay or lesbian, as reported in previous studies in Japan (Dale, 2014), although those sexual identities often assume cisgender identities.
 
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Metadata
Title
LGBTQ Young Adults’ Attitudes Toward Workplace Antidiscrimination Policies: A Cross-National Analysis Between the USA and Japan
Authors
Koji Ueno
Lacey J. Ritter
Melinda D. Kane
Skyler Bastow
Rachael Dominguez
Jason V. D’Amours
Publication date
09-09-2023
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Sexuality Research and Social Policy / Issue 1/2024
Print ISSN: 1868-9884
Electronic ISSN: 1553-6610
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-023-00872-6

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