is a Japanese gay lifestyle brand, and formerly a monthly magazine.

History

Gay magazines in Japan, along with much gay culture, are segregated by 'type' (e.g., muscular men, older men, specific occupations); ''G-men'' was founded in 1995 to cater to gay men who preferred "macho fantasy", as opposed to the sleeker,

yaoi ''Yaoi'' (; ja, やおい ), also known by the ''wasei-eigo'' construction and its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features Homoeroticism, homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typi ...

-inspired styles popular in the 1980s, and focused on "macho type" (muscular,

bearish Market sentiment, also known as investor attention, is the general prevailing attitude of investors as to anticipated price development in a market. This attitude is the accumulation of a variety of fundamental and technical factors, including p ...

men) and ''gaten-kei'' (ガテン系,

blue-collar workers A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involving manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, electricity generation and powe ...

). ''G-men'' included both editorial and photographic material, as well as prose stories and manga. ''G-men'' was designed to encourage steady readership by presenting a more well-defined fantasy image, and by running serialized, continuing manga stories (as opposed to the

one-shot One shot may refer to: Film and television * One-shot film, a feature film shot in one long take with no edits, or manufactured to look like so * ''One Shot'' (2005 film), a Sri Lankan action film directed by Ranjan Ramanayake * ''One Shot'' (2 ...

stories standard in other in gay men's magazines) which encouraged purchase of every issue.

Gengoroh Tagame is a pseudonymous Japanese manga artist. Regarded as the most influential creator in the gay manga genre, he has produced over 20 books in four languages over the course of his nearly four decade-long career. Tagame began contributing manga ...

's work was an important influence on ''G-men''s style; he provided the cover for the first 63 issues, as well as manga stories for most issues. ''G-men'' was also one of the first gay men's publishers to offer collections of manga bound into ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

''. The manga published in ''G-men'', particularly Tagame's work, was influential in the development of manga for gay men as a marketable category. Issues of ''G-men'' usually had approximately 300–500 pages, including several pages of glossy colour and some black and white photographs and drawings of hairy, sometimes bearded, muscular men in their 20s and 30s (these photographs are censored in accordance with Japan's rules; while they feature explicit depictions of sex, genitals—and most pubic hair—are obscured). The photographs sometimes featured traditional themes, such as ''

fundoshi is a traditional Japanese undergarment for adult males and females, made from a length of cotton. Before World War II, the was the main form of underwear for Japanese men and women. However, it fell out of use quickly after the war with the ...

'', traditional Japanese loincloths. Despite the inclusion of pornographic pictures and stories, however, ''G-men'' is not considered a pornographic magazine. ''G-men'' had fewer general articles than other magazines such as ''

Barazoku was Japan's first commercially circulated gay men's magazine. It began publication in July 1971 by Daini Shobō's owner's son and editor , although before that, there had been ''Adonis'' and ''Apollo'', its extra issue, around 1960 serving as a ...

'' and more short fiction and serialized stories. Issues included community listings, several different stories—often pornographic—and several in comic form as well, classified ads, and advertisements from gay-related and gay-friendly businesses such as spas, clubs and hotels, bars, cafes and restaurants, host bars (hustler bars), and brothels. In February 2016, publisher Furukawa Shobu announced that it would cease publication of ''G-men'' as a print magazine, though it continues to produce DVDs, books, and

gay manga is a colloquialism for a genre of Japanese art and media known within Japan as or . The genre focuses on male same-sex love, as created primarily by gay men for a gay male audience. ''Bara'' can vary in visual style and plot, but typically ...

under the ''G-men'' brand.

References

External links

G-men category page
at publisher's website {{LGBT in Japan 1994 establishments in Japan 2016 disestablishments in Japan Gay men's magazines published in Japan Lifestyle magazines published in Japan Monthly magazines published in Japan Magazines established in 1994 Magazines disestablished in 2016 Defunct magazines published in Japan