"Do you live on your own?"

It's a perfectly casual question at work, one that would naturally arise in conversations. For many gays and lesbians, however, if they happen to live with their partner, queries such as this often become the moment of truth — or the moment of avoiding the truth.

In the four years since Osaka's Kanako Otsuji showed her true rainbow colors and became Japan's first out politician, there has been a notable increase in gay and lesbian visibility across the country.