I think it’s more that people want to fit in. I’ve known foreigner women that get shy in VK concerts because they’re foreign. Even though 90% of audience is female
Male only concerts are still held these days so it’s probably still a common enough sentiment among male Japanese fans as well
Can’t speak for vkei acts in Japan but for the few acts that I’ve seen in LA, it’s been majority women in the crowd as well. Dir En Grey had a more even split since they do have the general metal fans as well. But Jiluka, ACME, Fukuro, Last Rockstars, and Kamijo were atleast 70% women. I do feel a little awkward but ultimately it doesn’t matter when the music starts.
Jiluka is the only band where it does feel awkward since alot of teens with their parents go lol. Hyde crowds have the nicest people tho, they were very welcoming and hyped me up when headbanging or moshing.
Yeah, I guess being a foreigner is a different case. When I went to lives in Japan, I was mostly nervous about the language barrier to be honest — but it turned out I didn’t need to be. The Japanese fans I encountered were actually really helpful.
That’s interesting! At their Stockholm concert, the crowd was about 50% men and 50% women — though it was a pre-party for a metal festival, so that might have had something to do with it. Some people there probably didn’t know much about visual kei at all, haha. But it was still one hell of a show!
I will reply longer later but I can only say it feels great that someone understood what I meant 
I don’t understand why some maybe even without experience even argue against me, its not like I am making fun of someone. That bands like DeG and Gazette mostly has a female audience is not a bad thing, no? I would say 95%+ is common. Some concerts maybe concerts 85-90%? Some 80-90 but the average would be 90%+.
By the way there are many stores that I personally know in harajuku, where they sell pictures/key holders whatever of VK guys (looking sexy), right next to the boybands and kpop boys. Some are live captures where they have zoomed in on the crotch and stuff. At least those are a part of the selection.
The difference between USA and Japan is maybe hard to understand for people who don’t know well about Japan. Under the surface, the flashy jpop boys and the cool anime, "cool Japan. There are many things in Japan that foreigners would find weird, deep down. ディープな日本。Much is related to sex, sexual fantasies and what westerners would find as perverse, to put it straight. That kind of stuff go deep back in Japan. There are extremely perverse & graphic pictures painted from like 200 years ago, many of you have probably seen the octopus one.. and this philosophy towards sex is deeply rooted in the japanese soul, history and whole society - to this day. Well it is just one example and to make it short it is very different from the west. You don’t understand it after visiting Japan once, or even living here for a year. But thats for another time, however, all of this is connected to more or less only women going to VK concerts with sexy guys, just like more or less only nerds and say 50 year old blokes go to concerts with 14 year old girls idol groups. Japanese people basically love sex and everything around it, they are very perverse and are not ashamed to show it. We all humans love it but the approach to it in Japan is just a bit different, and I don’t think its a bad thing at all.
But of course there are us foreigners too and other men who just purely want to enjoy the concert and the music, like me and dirdude! Matenrou is amazing live! Not everything is black and white.
**Some edits to fix the grammar
I think I’m really missing your point here but what does the dark side of Japan have to do with visual kei fandom, populated with hostess girls, bored single office ladies and fujoshis, and therefore leaning female?
I updated my post above, we can discuss it but we shouldn’t use the Gazette topic for it. I will let it be for now and we can continue somewhere else. I consider myself to have very much knowledge about it, and know the truth behind everything basically. I am not trying to play cool. There is a big difference between for example Glay that has like 50% men 50% women at their concerts, or Bz, or Yuzu - and Visual Kei like Gazette etc, where most of the audience are girls who most likely like their music, but also go there for “another reason”. It all makes sense and all the puzzle pieces come together the more you think about it. Thanks!
if you prefer a dadrock band pulling in normie audience why do you even buy tickets for a band that writes approx half of their song catalogue about sex, filth and fucking??? i can testify it does not take an advanced degree in tentacle screenprint history from 1800s to understand that a fanservice-driven band writing horny songs produced by a veteran VK gya will mostly attract horny young women
I know this topic comes up a few times but each time i think - if you’re on the vkei forum talking about vkei bands why complain bands and fans do things the vkei way?
If your preference is “bands with an equal partition of genders” that can easily be found, if you prioritize it above bands being vkei.
I just end up confused why one would end up at this point of seeking out an artist while hoping their fan base changes shape, while being aware as we are of how much vkei is what it is by servicing its fans.
Myself as an example, i enjoy alt idols’ music - mostly the groups w/ Wack bc i love Kenta’s writing, but there’s a few other groups too like ・・・・・・・・・ whose shoegazey sound is dreamy and amazing. I extremely fuck w/ this music but, like you seem to feel, i don’t know if i’d go see a live show of theirs, bc (opposite your case) the audience is gonna be about that same 97% male, and i just don’t want to be in that crowd. Personally speaking for only myself.
But at the same time, i figure that’s the scene which creates idol & that idol artists work in, and towards, and for. So i end up at this place of thinking i’ll just enjoy studio releases and that’s enough for me, or if i go see a live someday it’ll have to be after first having set aside my discomfort.
I was actually thinking this discussion is probably worthy of its own thread to be fair.
Just in my personal experience, I wouldn’t say that most fans are that young, particularly not for a band that’s been around for a while like the Gazette. The regulars at most shows need to have their own source of income to be able to sustain a hobby like that. That usually means either a “big girl” job or night work.
Most of the bands that I saw, the larger the crowd or the older the band…the more likely there were to be at least a decent number of men in the crowd. There were a couple exceptions, like seeing a couple salaryman guys up front for DaizyStripper at the small Holiday Shinjuku venue, with some more men scattered throughout.
Also some exceptions in the other direction. Plastic Tree, for example, had very few men, compared to bands of similar size and longevity. I think I may have only seen a handful in the three times that I’ve seen them. And it’s not even like Plastic Tree are the most showy, “hot” VK band around.
Now, for some it could be that they feel self conscious in a small, almost entirely female crowd. Maybe some of the male fans are also bandmen that don’t want to be recognized by other bangya. It’s not unheard of for guys to go to each other’s concerts casually and post about it on social media afterwards.
I dont think it matters to anyone, just a small discussion about some observations.
It’s titled “Tako to Ama” by Hokusai. Do you really think there is no western erotic art
from the 19th century?
Google German painter Heinrich Lossow and “nun” or “leda and the swan”. Or just any version of Leda and the swan. Or greek mythology…
The west is not one monolitic place. And it is definitivly not just the US. If you want to talk about the USA and US-americans please don’t use “west” and “westerners” as if they are interchangable. That implies you talk about europe, canada and australia as well.
The US is much more puritantic in a lot of regards compared to big parts of europe.
You’d probably find germany’s nudist beaches and the court ruling that woman can be topless at all public pools in berlin equally weird.
Someone working in the sex toy industry once told me germany is one of the easiest markets to get into with sex related products.
So people from Europe, especially Germany, might not find these japanese things as pervert or diffrent than people from the US.
Yeah… surprisingly woman have sexual desires, too. And see men in sexual ways.
I don’t really know why you are bringing this up here. Yes, I find a lot of the bandomen attractiv. Does this make me not a pure fan because I am not just a fan of the music as an art form?
I don’t really get what you are arguing for? I think we are all agreed long ago that vk caters to women. 
The cool thing is you can absolutely just enjoy the music or the music and the visual concept. But woman (or whoever else is into that) can also have their fantasies. That’s also a part of what vk bands sell when they hug the customer for the chekis or remember the gya’s that come regulary to the lives. Or do naked photo shoots … Sakito, Gackt, Hakuei…
i appreciate u making this clarification a lot!!!
i used to say “i don’t love western music much” until i realized wait, i enjoy hip-hop just fine, jazz is cool (esp 60s modal shit), i’m down for some bachata or norteño…
wrt attractive - ig i’m similar bc there’s bands i follow purely for appreciation for their visuals, and i say i’m waiting on them to make good music lol. I see nothing wrong with this!
I like what vkei is, i like that the audio and fashion are so closely interwoven in dialogue, i like that one band can quote or reference or challenge another not just in music and in lyrics but in visuals too. I like that bands who might not have much new to offer musically can move the scene forward with how they dress and act. Vkei would be less interesting to me if this wasn’t the case!
Idk i just feel like there’s a lot of streams of interest going on in vkei and i can hop on the ones that interest me (albums, lives, PVs, clothes, makeup, cheki) and respect but not necessarily be on the ones i’m not.
Yeah, definitely have to agree about Germany. I have a buddy in Sweden who is always showing me the huge variety of sex toys that he finds on German Amazon.
Sorry if my question came off as closed-minded, but what’s encouraging VK bands to keep holding (is that the right word?) Men only shows? I have no surprise if queer men also listens to VK but are they really sold as much as much as Women only shows? I expect even less straight japanese man listen to listen to these kind of stuff (Except maybe ones with harder sounds like Diru or Deviloof)
I suppose it’s a combination of insecurity/discomfort on the part of the men, combined with male VK fans being less likely to engage in extreme habits for the sake of a band they like (such as buying multiple tickets to the same event to get an early entry ticket. This can reduce the likelihood of male fans getting good spots.)
Creating a male-only live gets rid of both of those problems. If a band knows that they have a certain number of male fans who buy/stream their music, they may decide to hold these once a year to see if they get a decent turnout.
Honestly to support my previous post I would be more comfortable at a gig full of other guys than my previous experience where it was ONLY women except me at vk gigs. Haha. + For the record, I am not homosexual so make of that what you will. Lol.
sometimes i wonder if we’re really overcomplicating it from our homes on the internet & IRL it might not be much more crazy than the bands saying “hey i wonder how different the atmosphere and energy would be if we filtered our audience to x group this day and then y group the other day”
like literally just to do a different thing and have some variety ig
maybe i’d be more on edge about it if a certain band did like ONLY gender-split lives? or was like “our band is for this group only”, that’d be weird
but as it seems to be, just one thing that’s done once or twice a year, i just fail to be bothered by it any more than like Sukekiyo saying ‘if you come to our shows you must be wearing all black’.
and i say this as someone who no offense, would have kinda zero interest in going to a mens’-only show myself, but don’t at all mind bands and audience enjoying these experiments
Like how one alternative scene website saw that Dir en Grey had a two night split gender show in Japan and ran with the headline that “Dir en Grey says no girls allowed at metal shows”
Like, completely glossing over the fact that at the time, the large bulk of their live audience were already women.
oh gross