樱花影视

Katsuya Hasegawa

PhD Student

I started my MPhil/PhD with a vice chancellor scholarship at 樱花影视 in 2023. My PhD project is to investigate how international gay tourists experience Tokyo’s gay tourist district. I specifically focus on two things: how the gay tourists’ experiences and behaviours are influenced by the atmosphere of the Tokyo’s gay tourist place and how at the same time gay tourists’ behaviours are influencing the atmosphere of the gay tourist place in Tokyo. My supervisors are Dr Wenjie Cai (1st), Dr Isabella Ye (2nd), and Prof. Alastair Morrison (3rd).

I was awarded in a Master’s degree in Sociology from University of Exeter and a Bachelor degree in Japanese law from Meiji University (Japan). Between my BA degree and MA degree, I have worked in a translation company as an account manager in Tokyo.

In addition to my full-time student and worker experiences, I have also worked as a part time teacher at a private tutoring school for 4 years.

Tourism, hospitality and events

Responsibilities within the university

The current research assistant task is to briefly read can check the literatures which might be related to the ongoing project.

Recognition

Reviewers for Tourism Geographies

Research / Scholarly interests

My Current research interests include international gay tourism in Tokyo’s gay tourist district. More broadly, I am interested in a cultural and social inclusion in terms of LGBTQ+ communities and Asian societies.

Presentations

I presented the current research of gay tourism in Tokyo’s gay district at the ‘Researching the Rainbow’ event. I talked about some potential problems such as the separation between insider and outsider around gay tourism in Tokyo due to the Japanese customs and gay businesses focusing on the typification/categorisation. This touched not only heteronormative society against LGBTQ+ community but also certain normalised forms of LGBTQ+ identities within LGBTQ+ communities.