May 30, 2024
Why the tiger has become a transgender symbol in Japan
Gay Breakfast Pin Club writes:
Recently we learned about how some trans folks in Japan like to use tigers as a symbol for the trans community. It's a pun: Tora [虎] is the Japanese word for tiger, and when you sound out "trans" in katakana it basically starts with "tora." To-ra-n-su [トランス].
Toransu is clearly a loan word from English ("trans") that has been adapted to Japanese pronunciation (adding vowels/vowel epenthesis helps you avoid unpronounceable consonant clusters).
See also: MishimaKitan
The pin is available here.