Regular readers may recall the previous posting last month that featured an ad from Singapore with Sumo wrestlers about to draw the shades for a romantic evening together. For an ad from Singapore, it was quite a shock given the rather conservative nature of that city-state.
The ad reproduced to the left, for the Nikko Hotel in San Francisco, is less of a surprise given that it is, after all, from San Francisco. But then, it is also an ad for one hotel in a Japanese hotel chain, and for that reason it has surprise value given the conservative nature of most hotel chains in general, and Japanese companies in particular.
It's true that the Japanese often like to poke fun at Sumo wrestlers themselves (consider the wrestler who smothers his date in bed in Miike's film, The Happiness of the Katakuris, after having a heart attack while on top of her — reminiscent of the opening scene of butt smothering in John Waters' Desperate Living) however this isn't that goes out for foreign consumption. I'm sure this ad was a local effort from the San Francisco hotel itself. I'd be very surprised if the ad manager in the Nikko corporate offices approved a gay media strategy (this ad ran in Out Traveler).
Not to say that the Japanese haven't courted queer travel dollars. For the last two years at the Gay Travel Expo in NYC, All Nippon Airways has made a half-hearted effort at tabling. But the Japan National Tourist Organization hasn't done anything here at all. Once again I am not surprised. A few years ago I was peripherally involved in pitching the JNTO business for a Japanese agency in Tokyo, and when I suggested a side effort towards the gay market the room froze. No matter.
Oddly enough, I did do work for Nikko Hotels in the late 80s and early 90s. I like the hotels, and I always enjoy staying someplace I know I am really going to get good Japanese food in the U.S. However, on my next trip to San Francisco I will stay with friends. And I won't be looking to date a Yokozuna anytime soon.
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