Since March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Thai Boys’ Love (BL) drama fever or “Thai Numa” has become one of the emerging phenomena in Japanese social media. The boom started from a single tweet on Twitter, which persuaded “Fujoshi” (BL fangirls) to watch them. Currently, in 2023, it is easy to find Thai BL drama in several Japanese streaming media as well as to participate in the fan meetings or events all year round.

However, BL culture began in Japan in 1970s. How did it permeate from Japan to Thailand? This paper examines the historical events that led to the penetration of BL culture from Japan to Thailand, and it reimport to Japan, between 1970s and 2020s by categorizing them into four periods: Japan in 1970s, Thailand in 1990s, Thailand in 2010s, and Japan in 2020s. Thereafter, under each category, the study analyzes the contexts of media and society at that time to investigate how the BL culture was exported from Japan; imported, localized, hybridized in Thailand; and finally, repackaged and reimported to Japan as the Thai BL drama. This paper found that the Thai BL drama is the cultural product of the hybridization of Japanese BL culture and Thai popular culture, especially the imported otaku culture. In Thailand, the BL culture used to be a taboo in society; however, it has now become a soft power through the exported contents. Moreover, this paper also shows the power of fans and social media in expanding a reimported culture into the original culture in a country like Japan.

This paper examines the development, characteristics, production process, influences, and current state in Japan of Thai BL dramas. The author conducted the interview surveys with Thai BL drama directors, producers, and scriptwriters between May and August 2022. The author also implemented the document research on Thai BL dramas from May 2022 to February 2023.

Yaoi, which is a part of Japanese BL culture, was introduced to Thailand as a manga in the 1990s, but Thai BL dramas (so-called Y dramas), which were localized (Thai-nized) in the 2020s, became popular in Japan and spread all over the world as Thai-style “Y culture”. From 2012 to 2022, the number of Thai BL dramas has surged from 1 to 70. Thailand currently has a prominent presence in Asia as a content provider for BL dramas. The general production process of a Thai BL drama consists of this flow: selection of the original BL novel, casting, sponsor selection, scriptwriting, filming, editing, broadcasting, and marketing activities. In addition, the increasing popularity of Thai BL dramas contributes to the acceptance of sexual diversity in Thai society. Furthermore, the popularity of Thai BL dramas in Japan increased in 2020, during the outbreak of COVID-19. As people were restricted from going out and spent more time at home, some who watched Thai BL dramas for free on YouTube began to pay attention to Thai BL dramas and idols. Moreover, Thai BL dramas, which are gaining worldwide recognition, are regarded as crucial cultural resources in Thailand’s soft power strategy.

This paper examines the difference of characteristics between “LGBTQ Drama” and BL Drama in Thailand. Although both are depicting sexual minorities in Thai society, different aspects can be seen. Firstly, we analyze how Katoy (third sex or lady boy) has been depicted in Thai dramas. Katoy had long been depicted like, so to speak, a clown act in comedy, and rarely played an important role, i.e. just no more than a bizarre flavor to the story. After the year of 2000, however, a new trend appeared. Some producers and directors began to make an attempt of shooting films that face social problems of sexual minorities in Thai society. So-called Thai “LGBTQ Drama” has the aspect of challenging the serious issues of society concerned with sexual minorities. Such film makers have the aim of making society to change, fostering viewers to attain better understandings for sexual minorities in real society, while it is often not the case of Thai BL Drama.

As for the BL dramas in Thailand on the other hand, such as famous 2gether for example, viewers enjoy the sweetness of two male protagonists, and also enjoy ways of conversation and action of the favorite actors both inside and outside the drama. Viewers are usually more interested in the charms of their favorite actors than in the drama story itself. However, some of BL dramas are now starting to feature some aspects of the “LGBTQ Drama” previously mentioned, and the BL Drama in Thailand seems to be developing a wider range of looks. In any case, it is notable that the drama depicting sexual minorities in Thailand has ‘evolved’ now into BL drama, which is currently attaining worldwide attention as distinguished new cultural contents.

Since 2020, Thai boys’ love (BL) TV series have widely accepted by Japanese BL fan. The one of origins of Thai BL are recognized as Japanese BL culture, which is transferred with Japanese cultural products such as female manga or movies. This paper aims at analyzing writing strategies of Thai amateur BL fan fiction writers on Johnny’s groups, Japanese male idol groups, from two perspectives.

Thai BL fan gradually accepted Japanese BL culture through mild essences in female manga and educated themselves to enjoy gazing the affinity or love between males. Furthermore, they localized and developed BL works in Thai style. Thai BL fan fictions on Johnny’s groups attempt to satisfy two desires by utilizing physical and cultural distance between Japan and Thailand. One is the desire of “female gaze” to see the love of beautiful males from far away. To satisfy the desires, Thai writers set the story in somewhere far from Thai society such as imaginary Japan where BL relationship are ideally accepted. The other is the desire of attachment to watch over the males closely. They localize BL story in Thai style and give Thai nicknames to Johnny’s members. The conflict between two desires heightens the preciousness of Johnny’s BL story in Thailand.

O HANA SAN, written in 1900 by King Rama VI (1881–1925) while he was studying in England, is one of his works about Japan. Previous studies have raised important observations about the plot between the main characters, O Hana-San and Ray, which resembles the relationship between Cho-Cho-San and Pinkerton in John Luther Long’s Madame Butterfly. Not only does O HANA SAN portray the relationship between ‘Western man-Japanese woman’, but it also details the relationships between ‘Japanese man-Western woman’ and ‘Western man-Japanese man’. This study analysed the representation of Japan and Japanese people in O HANA SAN, focusing on the relationship between ‘Westerner-Japanese’ through the Thai author’s perspectives.

As a result, representations of Japan are found in three aspects: 1) The aspect of ‘Western man-Japanese woman’ reflected that Japanese woman could be independent deciding their own fate. 2) The aspect of ‘Japanese man-Western woman’ represented the equal relationship insisting on the idea “Whether we are of Western or Oriental descent, we are all human being”. 3) the aspect of ‘Western man-Japanese man’ represented the pride and dignity of Japanese man.

In addition to Western perspectives that influence O HANA SAN, the international status of Japan to Thais is reflected. Furthermore, the Relationship between ‘Westerners and Japanese’ was used functionally to insist on the political ideology, which is one of Rama VI’s signatures featured in his works.

The Thai government launched Thailand 4.0, a long-term growth strategy aimed at overcoming the middle-income country trap through industrial upgrading and the ensuing transition to a high-income economy. Accordingly, three eastern provinces have been designated as special economic zone, and the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) was chosen as the flagship project of the aforementioned strategy. A Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy that leverages Thailand’s competitive advantages was established as the new national agenda in 2021. In the business domain, PTT Public Company Limited (PTT), a typical resource-dependent public corporation whose core business is fossil fuels, is under pressure to adapt to various business environmental changes, such as climate change issues.

In consideration of these matters, this research examined PTT’s shift in business strategy in relation to the Thai government’s recently announced national plan and derived its implications for the nature of innovation in the country, focusing on government–private sector partnerships. To these ends, focus was directed toward the innovation hub called Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation (EECi), developed in the EEC. In response to the changing business environment, PTT has revised its vision and is actively diversifying its business into future energy directions, such as the Electric Vehicle (EV) supply chain, and new business avenues, including the life sciences. The EECi is one of the principal innovation initiatives of the Thai government, following Thailand 4.0 and BCG Economy. It involves creating an innovation ecosystem in collaboration with PTT and the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA). We discuss what the Thai government’s future role should be in guiding private sector innovation toward leveraging Thailand’s comparative advantage in the global economy.

This study examines the meaning of “the Democratic Regime of Government with the King as Head of State” by comparing between the 1949 and 1997 constitutions. One of the central concepts that form Thai politics is rabop prachathipatai an mi phramahakasat song pen pramuk, that is, Democracy with the King as Head of State (DKHS). Thai constitutions have been stipulating that Thailand is governed by a democratic system, and the king is the head of state. However, its exact wording has changed several times since the 1949 Constitution. The current expression of DKHS has been established since the 1991 Constitution.

DKHS has a long history of more than half a century as a constitutional and legal term; however, its meaning remains not clear. Historian Saichon Sattayanurak interpreted DKHS as the idea that when a political crisis arises, the king intervenes to resolve political disputes. Although it is a view with a certain degree of persuasive power, the myth that the king can intervene in a crisis and can attempt mediation has been completed after the bloody incident in May 1992. In contrast, the original wording of the DKHS first appeared in the 1949 Constitution.

This study hypothesizes that the meaning of DKHS has been changing along with changes in actual politics and elucidates changes in the meaning of the DKHS by comparing the drafting minutes of the 1949 Constitution, in which DKHS first appeared, and the 1997 Constitution, which was enacted after the 1992 Bloodshed. As a result of the examination in this paper, it became clear that at the time of the 1949 constitution, the DKHS was a means for the royalists to win the power struggle against the army and maintain the monarchy, however the 1997 Constitution, promulgated in an era of democratization, made it clear that the objects DKHS would control were the people and democracy to preserve the monarchy. Therefore, the meaning of DKHS has clearly changed along with changes in the political power struggle of the times.