Shops & Services for Japan’s LGBTQ & Ally Community #1

This is the first article in a series that will introduce services available in Japan for people who enjoy diversity of expression, including gender diversity. It includes, but is not limited to, the LGBTQ community and their allies. As an example, our first installment is a photo studio that specializes in using makeup and costumes to transform men into adorable-looking women. We hope these spots become indispensable places where readers can belong and express themselves as they truly are.

Makeup Salon cotton 

Makeup Salon cotton provides a high-quality cross-dressing makeover service for men. The first outlet opened in Nakameguro, Tokyo, in 2017, and a second in Umeda, Osaka, in 2021. The chain receives more than 2000 reservations a year.

The salon has been sharing on social media how it transforms users from a normal male appearance to a fashionable girl featuring one of the latest trends. The work of its professional makeup artists and photographers became so popular online that followers started telling cotton, “Although I am a woman, I want to use the service!”

As a result, in line with the salon’s goal of having people enjoy its service regardless of their age or gender, on March 7 this year, it started a new operation that caters to women.

The rental costumes that cotton provides include popular styles like a maid, a high school student, Lolita fashion, a pop idol, and the trendy “land-mine girl” and “mass production” styles. The land-mine style features make-up that is red under the eyes, as if the person has been crying, and clothes that are high-brand, paired with pouches of Sanrio-brand characters such as My Melody and other friends of Hello Kitty. The “mass production” style is extremely feminine and refers to wearing the clothes introduced in fashion magazines exactly as they are.

Experienced staff handle the makeup and a photographer takes the photos, making it a high-quality experience. The salon also permits customers to take selfies in the studio.

Footbath Café Donyoku

Footbath Café Donyoku aims to be a place where people can connect, regardless of concerns such as their sexuality, age, nationality, and relax not only the mind, but also the body in a communal footbath. Located in Shinjuku’s 2-chome district, which has developed as a gathering place for LGBT people, it also aims to create a place of equality, where people are not bound by categorization.

Store manager Satoko Nagamura says the usual idea of the footbath seating has created a place where multiple people can talk with other visitors frankly.

“People tend to be nervous when they talk with someone for the first time, but I thought that if they talked in a footbath, they would be warm and relaxed so the conversation would be lively,” she told the Matcha website.

Nagamura also runs an “izakaya” pub called Teppan Onna Sakaba Dorobune on the same floor. It is aimed at female sexual minorities and their friends and family.

While running the izakaya, Nagamura began to think that “while it is necessary to divide by sexuality, it is also important to respect people’s personality without being bound by categorization.”

The seating at Donyoku includes counter seats and tables and their arrangements can be changed freely. It is a place that responds to visitors’ needs flexibly to provide them with a comfortable time.

Donyoku has an English-language menu and the staff speak varying levels of English.