My two cents is that identity in Japanese culture is more diffused and not as centralized as the “I” in western culture. Course this is just me spitballing of off some basic anthro classes, but what I’ve noticed:
- Japanese culture puts more emphasis on the “we” than the “I”, and there is more stress associated with blending into society than finding the self, or a “permanent and perfect unchanging identity”.
- Japanese language is gendered and with that comes expectations societally appropriate for women and men. I don’t know how far Japan has come with gender equality or whatever, but I do remember hearing that restaurants serve food in “men’s portions” and “women’s portions” that is pretty evident there is still some sex based social constructs there. There’s also festivals for milestones in development for men or women, so I’d imagine that would solidify gender identity quite a bit.
- Japan has a lot of Buddhist influence, which again, places more importance on interdependence and anatman (no self). There is no permanent, unchanging self. I’d say that puts more push into blending in with society.
With all these into consideration, because there’s more weight to abiding in gender identity roles to fit in with society better, troonism would do a fuckton of irreparable social damage which would lead to a shit life.
In western countries, there’s the Abrahamic religion background that implies a solid, unchanging identity. The “I” is very important, and is to be distinguished from the “we”. Throughout life, our main goal is to find out how the “I” stands out in comparison to the “we”, and to develop this “I” into a solid and perfected unchanging identity. Yet, the softening of gendered expectations provides more social flexibility for men and women. Any problems arising from the disapproval of MY IDENTITY is the fault of “them” and not the fault of “me”. Thus, it’s easier for troons to arise because: there isn’t any social reprimand for bending gender norms (it’s actually encouraged nowadays), because of the exultation of the self and the steps made towards becoming a perfect unchangeable identity, and because of the need to be more unique than the rest (“I’m a woman BUT I’m a TRANS WOMAN”).
I wanted to end this text wall with a manga panel from “Inside Mari”, which was written to express the authors’ own gender dysphoria. I couldn’t find the panel where he makes a note, but I remembere it said
“Do you ever wish you were born a woman? I do. Yet, I know for a fact this is an unattainable goal. Even if medical technology were to progress in a way that I can have my mind put into the body of a woman, it will never change the fact that I will be playing a woman from the psychology of a natural born male,” to that effect. Go find it for yourself, I recall it being an interesting look into a neet skinwalking a woman.