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New life for Indian boy tied to bus stop
7/17/2014 9:51:36 PM
- CNN met Lakhan Kale on the pavement in Mumbai where he lived with his grandmother
- She had tied him to a pole to stop the deaf and mute boy from running into traffic
- People emailed and phoned asking how they could help him
- Lakhan was taken in by SSPM, a non-governmental organization
Mumbai (CNN) -- Just a few weeks ago, a young boy tied to a bus stop in Mumbai barely received a glance from passersby oblivious to his plight.
Deaf and mute, nine-year-old Lakhan was regularly tied to a pole by his elderly grandmother for fear he would run into traffic on a nearby road while she was away at work.
Now, grandmother and grandson are living in a home for deaf and mute children, the patch of pavement where they both lived swapped for a roof above their heads.
READ: Disabled boy tied to Mumbai bus stop
After reading about Lakhan on CNN in June, people wrote, tweeted, messaged, called and emailed from around the world.
Many wrote to express their concern. Some wrote to ask how they could help. Others sent funds to help rehabilitate Lakhan. One person started a Facebook page to raise awareness about his plight.
The response was overwhelming.
"I was under the impression -- 'who cares for such stories?'" said Meena Mutha, a social worker with the Manav Foundation. She'd been trying to find Lakhan a more suitable home since placing him in a government-run shelter for juveniles in June.
It was better than the street but not suitable for a boy with cerebral palsy who needed dedicated care.
Mutha took on Lakhan's case in late May when a constable called her after seeing the boy's photo in a local newspaper. Lakhan was tied to a pole with rags and his elderly grandmother, Sakubai, was obviously struggling to take care of him as well as herself.
"He is deaf so he would not be able to hear traffic coming. If he ran onto the road, he'd get killed," Sakubai told CNN in June. "See, it's a long rope," she said, holding out a piece of frayed cloth. There were many similar pieces of cloth tied to different poles.
A life of struggle
Sakubai told CNN Lakhan's father had passed away four years ago. His mother deserted them and his older sister ran away.
She had done the best she could, selling trinkets on a nearby beach to earn a meager wage to feed them. There was no money for shelter so she stretched out a piece of cloth on the ground behind the bus stop where they both would sleep.
Mutha struggled to find Lakhan a suitable home. Mumbai only has one government-run center for children with special needs and there was no room left for him.
Her exasperation turned to hope when a father and son team, Alok and Parth Polke, stepped in with an offer to take in Lakhan for free. They also offered his grandmother a job in their hostel, in Satara, a scenic hill town not far from Mumbai.
"Lakhan's a special case," said Alok Polke, who runs Samata Shikshan Prasarak Mandal (SSPM), a non-governmental organization that caters to deaf and mute children.
Alok Polke, SSPM
"His father died, his mother and sister abandoned him. He's left alone. What happens after his grandmother?"
Hostel offers new hope
CNN accompanied Lakhan, his grandmother and Mutha to Satara. He's the first mentally-challenged student to live in the SSPM hostel, which until now has only been for children who can't hear or speak.
Polke said there were "thousands of Lakhans in India" who desperately need a roof over their heads.
He said there are some homes for children who are deaf and dumb because they are comparatively easier to look after.
However, children who are mentally-challenged need dedicated help: more staff, attention outside of school hours, funding, and infrastructure. "That's lacking everywhere in India," Polke said.
Lakhan appeared to settle in quickly into his new surroundings. Within an hour of reaching the hostel, he was running around in the yard, playing with the other children, each one a child of special needs, each one quickly engaged in a game of tag.
They are some of the more fortunate ones.
Lack of care in India
According to the last census conducted in 2011, around 26.8 million people are in living with disabilities in India.
That's 2.2% of the population of more than 1.2 billion. Other bodies, including the World Bank, say the figure is much higher.
Many of them are children whose needs aren't being met by government shelters.
Even the government admits the lack of facilities for disabled children in India is a serious problem.
"There should be lots more institutions for these kinds of children," said Vijaya Murthy, a member of the government-run Child Welfare Committee in the state of Maharashtra.
When asked why the state had not established more institutions, she said the responsibility did not lie with the government alone.
"Society and government should come forward and have some rehabilitation plans for special needs children," she said.
She was unable to provide details of any specific plans the government has to rehabilitate thousands of other children like Lakhan in India, many of whom remain invisible and ignored.
For more information on how to directly help Lakhan, and people like him, go to manavfoundation.org.in.
READ: Disability in India
China gives Japan a history lesson
7/16/2014 10:29:38 PM
- Sino-Japanese relations fast deteriorating amid tensions over disputed islands in the East China Sea
- Analysts say China and Japan are engaged in a war of propaganda and rhetoric
- Jeff Kingston: "These battles over history undermine trust and limit the room for diplomacy"
Beijing (CNN) -- Chinese state media frequently treats Japan's atrocities of the past like breaking news of today. But lately, the steady flow of war history-related news has become a flood.
Amid fast-deteriorating Sino-Japanese relations, China's State Archives Administration recently re-opened case files from a Chinese military tribunal in 1956 and launched a dedicated website to publish summaries of confessions by 45 convicted Japanese war criminals.
Among the horrifying accounts posted online by Chinese authorities are confessions of raping countless women, burying people alive and performing human vivisections in China -- all handwritten by captured Japanese army officers after World War II and long sealed in the state archives in Beijing.
The Chinese government's target is clear.
"Since the Abe cabinet came into power in Japan," begins the online introduction to the confessions, referring to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "It has openly confused right and wrong to mislead the public, in an attempt to whitewash the history of external aggression and colonialism."
Tense seas
China and Japan have a dark history of conflict, including the nine-year Second Sino-Japanese War during which the contentious Nanjing Massacre took place from December 13, 1937 to March 1, 1938. Japanese soldiers committed mass murders and forced Chinese and Korean women into sexual slavery during the occupation of Nanjing.
But it was a more recent flare-up, say analysts, which brought the historic grievances back out into the open.
Relations between China and Japan became strained in 2012 when Japan claimed islands in the East China Sea.
China then declared in November 2013 an Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea, imposing air traffic restrictions over the disputed area.
China's moves have made Japan and other nations in South East Asia nervous over it's expanding military and more assertive foreign policy, accusing China of trying to change the status quo.
A right turn
In December, Abe further stoked tensions by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine where Japanese soldiers are honored -- including wartime leaders convicted as class-A war criminals. Abe became the first sitting prime minister to make the provocative visit since Junichiro Koizumi went in 2006.
Six months later, Abe declared a more liberal interpretation of Japan's post-war pacifist constitution, essentially lifting a decades-long ban that prevented its military from fighting abroad.
The following month, China released the Japanese wartime confessions online. Beijing also marked the anniversary of the Second Sino-Japanese War with an elaborate commemoration ceremony at Lugou Bridge, the site of the first showdown.
"China is responding to Prime Minister Abe's attempts to rehabilitate the discredited wartime past. It's trying to underscore the fact that Japan suffers from selective amnesia," says Jeff Kingston, an expert in Asian regional tensions and a professor at Temple University, Japan Campus.
Jeff Kingston
Global strategy
For long-time China watchers, this back-and-forth may be escalating at an alarming rate, but it is nothing new.
"Since the early 1990s, the communist party has been trying to stoke anti-Japanese patriotism among the Chinese people mostly because they wanted to regain some of the legitimacy they lost in the Tiananmen Square massacre," says Kingston, referring to the bloody military crackdown on Chinese student demonstrators in 1989.
For China's president, the nationalism stoked by anti-Japanese sentiment, could become a powerful tool.
"Nationalism is a very potent force in China right now. Xi is strengthening nationalistic sentiment to unify the country behind him and reinforce his own position as leader," says Frank Ching, a political commentator.
Beyond fomenting patriotism at home, China is also reminding its international partners that Japan hasn't come clean about its past.
Kingston explains that Japan's imperialist history "is Abe's Achilles' heel." By highlighting Abe's right-wing inclinations, China can drive a wedge between the U.S. and Japan, while pulling South Korea -- another nation that suffers wartime scars inflicted by Japan -- closer.
China appears to be using it's propaganda push to isolate Japan from its allies.
Resolution
But China's heavy-handed propaganda may backfire in the end because foreign governments may see it in a more cynical light.
"If they press their case more quietly, it would be more effective," says Kingston.
It may also lead the nations further away from resolution.
"These battles over history undermine trust and limit the room for diplomacy. It's very difficult for both sides to find a face-saving way to climb down," says Kingston.
Abe has repeatedly called for face-to-face talks with his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping. "The door for dialogue is always open on my side, and I hope China has the same attitude," the Japanese leader said.
But analysts are not hopeful for talks, as both nations wait for the other to make the first move.
"The Chinese side has made it clear that they will not talk to Abe unless he takes action to show that his attitude has changed, but I don't see Abe doing that in the absence of any commitment from China for a meeting first," says Ching.
All eyes are now on the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit coming up in November during which Abe has invited Xi to a meeting on the sidelines. The two leaders have never met since both came to power in 2012.
'Sherlock Holmes' in U.S. court
7/17/2014 7:02:45 AM
- Sherlock Holmes was fictional, but he lives on in novels and short stories
- The estate of the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is fighting a copyright case
- A California writer wants to publish a new series of Holmes stories
- The Conan Doyle estate wants the U.S. Supreme Court to solve the case
(CNN) -- Step lively Watson, there's a mystery afoot at the Supreme Court -- and the estate of Sherlock Holmes' creator says only the nine justices can ultimately solve the Case of the Contested Copyright.
The estate of the late British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has asked the high court to block a California writer from moving ahead with plans to publish a new series of stories featuring the celebrated fictional detective and his friend Dr. Watson.
A federal appeals court in Chicago last month ruled in favor of California-based editor and lawyer Leslie Klinger, saying he did not have to pay royalty fees to the Conan Doyle estate, over his plans to publish a new volume of Holmes stories penned by contemporary authors.
The estate then asked the high court to delay enforcement of the appeals court ruling, at least temporarily, until its legal team could prepare a more detailed petition for the justices to hear their case.
There was no indication when the court would rule. The nine-member bench is on a three-month recess, but is available to handle these time-sensitive matters.
Conan Doyle created one of the most famous and enduring characters in fiction, with four novels and 56 short stories published from 1887 to 1927. The final 10 stories remain under copyright protection in the United States until 2022, while the rest are in the public domain.
In their high court claim, the estate asserts Holmes and Watson "were not static but are dynamic literary characters who changed and developed throughout the Sherlock Holmes canon."
Their lawyers say that means the adventures of the fictional friends from decades ago cannot be appropriated today, based on older Conan Doyle works that are in the public domain.
"Many aspects of these characters' natures are not revealed until the final 10 stories, which are still under copyright protection" say the estate's lawyers. "The 10 stories are not set exclusively in the characters' old age but at various points throughout the characters' lives."
The financial stakes remain lucrative. The estate says the Holmes character has been portrayed in more than 200 films, and that it has a financial and creative interest in ensuring the detective "is not despoiled in a way that would irreparably damage the value of the Sherlock Holmes copyright."
Klinger had earlier paid a $5,000 licensing fee to the estate in 2011 for an initial work of re-imagined Holmes stories called "A Study in Sherlock." But he refused to pay a fee for a planned November sequel, "In the Company of Sherlock Holmes." Klinger's publisher, Pegasus Books, is supporting him in court.
Klinger's website describes him as "one of the world's foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes and Dracula."
In his blog, he dismisses the appeal to the Supreme Court. "The 7th Circuit [federal appeals court] ruled on June 22 in our favor, finding that creators were free to use the characters of Holmes, Watson, etc., so long as the creators did not infringe on the 'protected elements' in the remaining 10 copyrighted stories," said Klinger. "Clearly, the characters' names and most of their characteristics are not such 'protected elements.' Thus, to put it very loosely, Sherlock Holmes is 'free.'"
The case is Conan Doyle Estate Ltd. v. Klinger (14a47).
'To Kill a Mockingbird' novelist sues over trademark
A 51-year-old male schoolgirl?
7/19/2014 9:41:53 PM
- Japanese society is generally quite traditional and conservative
- Following an alternative lifestyle can be difficult, but Hideaki Kobayashi took the plunge a few years ago
- Dressed as a uniform-clad schoolgirl, he gets a lot of attention, both positive and negative
- He's been held up as an example of being true to yourself
Tokyo (CNN) -- In Japan, a country where structure, conformity and security are bedrocks, it is often hard for individuals to break free and follow a more idealized path. It is especially difficult when that path turns out to be somewhat ... eccentric.
So we salute Hideaki Kobayashi, who took the courageous step a few years ago of dressing up -- like a 15-year-old schoolgirl. Complete with ponytail, knee-high socks, penny loafers and a cute red kerchief, his outfit is the epitome of Japanese girls' school uniforms.
His thinning white hair and beard, which frame his round, middle-aged man's face, however, add something a little different to the look.
By and large, he's found that his unusual appearance, which he says makes him "feel comfortable," is accepted on Tokyo's streets.
Now a patent-holding computer engineer, an accomplished photographer and presumptive music producer, Kobyashi's life hasn't always been this way.
"When I was in university I majored in mathematics and I was very introverted," he tells me as people crowd round to take photos -- he poses for up to 100 a day. "I never talked to people. I feel much more myself wearing this.
"Japan(ese) society is all about conforming to the other people. (Japanese people) feel suffocated conforming to society."
For such a conservative country, the capital does have pockets of individuality, especially around the Harajuku area, where tourists often gather to snap pictures of some of the city's more out-there residents. Cosplay is a big thing in Japan, and many enthusiasts gather in the neighborhood's Yoyogi Park to show off their ensembles. But even here, the 51-year-old stands out.
Certainly Kobayashi's style is unique, and draws a lot of attention, even in Harajuku. He tells me that it took him two hours to walk from Shibuya's famous crosswalk to the neighborhood, usually a 15-minute stroll, because of all the people stopping to take photos with him.
"Comfortable, relaxed and happy"
Lola Fantappie, a tourist from California, encountered Kobayashi in the Akihabara district, the beating heart of Japan's otaku (geek) culture and no stranger to societal outliers. She says that she was struck by his contentedness. "He just seemed so comfortable, relaxed, and happy... I don't know, embracing life. I think it's great."
And his unique take on life -- and dress code -- has garnered some unlikely admirers.
Waseda Juku, a private tutorial center in Tokyo, might be a far cry from the Japanese public school system, which still largely operates by the old maxim, "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down," but still, to draft in an elderly cross-dresser as a motivational speaker is a huge step for a Japanese educational institution.
The school's staff learned of Kobayashi's many talents, and Alexander Blackhall, an administrator at the school, said they were drawn to the "rich character behind the facade" as well as the potential this brave man had to teach their charges something about being themselves.
"(He) just sends such a positive message," Blackhall says. "It's really useful to young people, particularly here in Japan -- this voyage of self discovery."
Kobayashi calls it the key to a rich and happy life. "If there¹s something you want to do, do that," he says.
'Be yourself'
Historically, cross-dressing has played an important part in Japanese culture. Onnagata -- male kabuki performers who played the female role-- were, and remain, a staple of the art. A more modern flip-side to this can be found in the Takarazuka revue, an all-female troupe which acts out campy musicals using an all-female cast in the town of Takarazuka in Osaka prefecture, as well a satellite theater in Tokyo.
Variety shows on TV here also mine a rich seam of cross-dressing, and it's common in anime (Japanese cartoons) as well as manga (comic books).
But while men dressing as women is accepted in Japanese pop culture, Kobayashi says that real life reactions can be different -- he says sometimes people shout insults on the street, and notes that he's been stopped by the police as many as ten times.
Despite the negative attention and discrimination, he thinks it's worth it. It's still outweighed by the positivity of the throngs of people eagerly posing with him as he skips from Shibuya to Harajuku, and by the kids he's able to reach with his message of tolerance, and how liberating being a non-conformist can be.
He says his story proves you don¹t have to be conventional to be accepted.
"That¹s my message," he says. "Be yourself."
CNN's Euan McKirdy contributed to this report
Sex harassment cases tough to win
7/19/2014 10:08:07 AM
- Danny Cevallos: A Yahoo exec is being sued for sex harassment, but denies charges
- He says case highlights how poorly understood the sexual harassment law is
- Cevallos: There are two kinds of sexual harassment cases, both difficult to prove
Editor's note: Danny Cevallos is a CNN legal analyst, criminal defense attorney and partner at Cevallos & Wong, practicing in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Follow him on Twitter: @CevallosLaw. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- After being sued for sexual harassment, a Yahoo executive is countersuing a former employee who leveled the original accusations against her. While the stakes of the sexual harassment claim are large, the underlying facts are actually quite common in this variety of litigation.
Former software engineer Nan Shi filed a complaint against the executive, Maria Zhang, accusing her of coercing Shi into sex, and threatening to fire Shi. Zhang and Yahoo's defense is that Shi fabricated the entire story. Yahoo says she is an underperformer who received negative performance evaluations.
There is perhaps no area of the law where we have failed to educate our citizenry more than sexual harassment. Every lawyer has fielded a call from a potential client or family member, who believes fervently that they are victims of "harassment," "discrimination" or a "hostile work environment."
That may be true. But, there is a huge difference between the common usage of these words and the legal definition. The vast majority of what employees personally consider "harassment" bears little resemblance to the kind of harassment that is legally actionable.
Federal and state law, and in the Yahoo case, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act prohibits discrimination and harassment against an employee based on sex (among other things). There are two types of sexual harassment: hostile work environment sexual harassment and quid pro quo sexual harassment.
Hostile work environment is far more popular in that people often believe their workplace is hostile because their boss is a jerk, or he "has it out for them." But, as the Supreme Court has famously said, discrimination laws are not a "general civility code for the American workplace."
Danny Cevallos
In the Yahoo case, the plaintiff is alleging the other kind of harassment. Quid pro quo harassment is rarer, but potentially easier to prove. Quid pro quo means "this for that." Simply put, a plaintiff must prove that a boss first made unwanted sexual advances or engaged in other unwanted sexual conduct.
The plaintiff must also prove either that job benefits were conditioned on acceptance of those sexual advances or that employment decisions were based on his/her acceptance or rejection of the boss' conduct.
As one can imagine, it's far more common for people to allege that they work in a generally sexually charged atmosphere than to allege that a boss made a concrete sexual advance, with a clear "or else" condition attached to it.
From an evidence standpoint, however, quid pro quo harassment has more "smoking gun" potential. This is because a single instance of quid pro quo sexual harassment may be actionable. On the other hand, a single incident of hostile work environment sexual harassment will not justify a lawsuit, unless it's really bad.
It makes sense: If the boss sends you an e-mail saying: "Meet me in the supply room for hanky-panky if you want that promotion," then you've established the overture with one e-mail. On the other hand, e-mailing or telling a lewd joke may be offensive in one person's cubicle, but hilarious in the other's. It makes sense that hostile work environment requires more severe, pervasive behavior, or else the legitimate claims would be overwhelmed by the "can't take a joke" plaintiffs.
In the Yahoo case, the plaintiff has alleged actual sexual contact, which the executive denies.
Even in cases where there is a consensual relationship, there can still be actionable sexual harassment. This commonly happens where the office romance ends, and the demotions begin. So, even if there was a prior relationship, the plaintiff here could potentially prevail on a harassment claim.
If Shi fabricated the allegations, as the defendants assert, then that would be a bold and brassy lie. But it wouldn't be unique. Defendants in these cases frequently claim the plaintiff conjured up harassment just to save their job after substandard performance reviews. It becomes a high-stakes chicken-and-egg game: Were the negative reviews a conspiracy to cover up the harassment? Or was the harassment made up to cast doubt on the reports of underperformance? Only time—and a jury—will tell.
According to California law, all employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment.
At least some of those reasonable steps include that sign we've all seen over the coffee machine in the break room, the one that basically says "Sexual Harassment is Bad." In California, that's a poster distributed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Increasingly, it seems, we're becoming a nation of anemic warning signs instead of concerted action. Do we actually believe an executive planning to accost and grope his secretary in the file room will rethink his intentions after reading a poster hung over the water cooler?
California employers have a duty and a financial incentive to investigate these claims, because employers are often held strictly—or automatically—liable for a lecherous supervisor.
Yahoo allegedly conducted an investigation and cleared Maria Zhang. In California, an employer's duties in responding to allegations include conducting an immediate inquiry, encouraging a written complaint, and protecting the employee from retaliation. It's true that human resources is oft-criticized for siding with management against employees, but if Yahoo feels confident enough to keep backing Zhang, that suggests its internal investigation revealed no wrongdoing.
Ultimately, actionable sexual harassment claims are a fraction of the total charges filed with the EEOC and state agencies. This is because the public misunderstands the high burden on a plaintiff to prove sexual harassment. It takes a lot to prove an employer's conduct transcended ordinary office nastiness into illegal harassment.
The recent story of the Chicago area employer who limits bathroom breaks to six minutes a day reminds us what we all already knew: There are a lot of lousy workplaces, evil bosses and cruel co-workers. Unfortunately, the vast majority of us have a perfectly legal—if not pleasant—work environment.
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A 51-year-old male schoolgirl?
7/20/2014 6:28:05 AM
- Japanese society is generally quite traditional and conservative
- Following an alternative lifestyle can be difficult, but Hideaki Kobayashi took the plunge a few years ago
- Dressed as a uniform-clad schoolgirl, he gets a lot of attention, both positive and negative
- He's been held up as an example of being true to yourself
Tokyo (CNN) -- In Japan, a country where structure, conformity and security are bedrocks, it is often hard for individuals to break free and follow a more idealized path. It is especially difficult when that path turns out to be somewhat ... eccentric.
So we salute Hideaki Kobayashi, who took the courageous step a few years ago of dressing up -- like a 15-year-old schoolgirl. Complete with ponytail, knee-high socks, penny loafers and a cute red kerchief, his outfit is the epitome of Japanese girls' school uniforms.
His thinning white hair and beard, which frame his round, middle-aged man's face, however, add something a little different to the look.
By and large, he's found that his unusual appearance, which he says makes him "feel comfortable," is accepted on Tokyo's streets.
Now a patent-holding computer engineer, an accomplished photographer and presumptive music producer, Kobyashi's life hasn't always been this way.
"When I was in university I majored in mathematics and I was very introverted," he tells me as people crowd round to take photos -- he poses for up to 100 a day. "I never talked to people. I feel much more myself wearing this.
"Japan(ese) society is all about conforming to the other people. (Japanese people) feel suffocated conforming to society."
For such a conservative country, the capital does have pockets of individuality, especially around the Harajuku area, where tourists often gather to snap pictures of some of the city's more out-there residents. Cosplay is a big thing in Japan, and many enthusiasts gather in the neighborhood's Yoyogi Park to show off their ensembles. But even here, the 51-year-old stands out.
Certainly Kobayashi's style is unique, and draws a lot of attention, even in Harajuku. He tells me that it took him two hours to walk from Shibuya's famous crosswalk to the neighborhood, usually a 15-minute stroll, because of all the people stopping to take photos with him.
"Comfortable, relaxed and happy"
Lola Fantappie, a tourist from California, encountered Kobayashi in the Akihabara district, the beating heart of Japan's otaku (geek) culture and no stranger to societal outliers. She says that she was struck by his contentedness. "He just seemed so comfortable, relaxed, and happy... I don't know, embracing life. I think it's great."
And his unique take on life -- and dress code -- has garnered some unlikely admirers.
Waseda Juku, a private tutorial center in Tokyo, might be a far cry from the Japanese public school system, which still largely operates by the old maxim, "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down," but still, to draft in an elderly cross-dresser as a motivational speaker is a huge step for a Japanese educational institution.
The school's staff learned of Kobayashi's many talents, and Alexander Blackhall, an administrator at the school, said they were drawn to the "rich character behind the facade" as well as the potential this brave man had to teach their charges something about being themselves.
"(He) just sends such a positive message," Blackhall says. "It's really useful to young people, particularly here in Japan -- this voyage of self discovery."
Kobayashi calls it the key to a rich and happy life. "If there¹s something you want to do, do that," he says.
'Be yourself'
Historically, cross-dressing has played an important part in Japanese culture. Onnagata -- male kabuki performers who played the female role -- were, and remain, a staple of the art. A more modern flip-side to this can be found in the Takarazuka revue, an all-female troupe which acts out campy musicals using an all-female cast in the town of Takarazuka in Osaka prefecture, as well a satellite theater in Tokyo.
Variety shows on TV here also mine a rich seam of cross-dressing, and it's common in anime (Japanese cartoons) as well as manga (comic books).
But while men dressing as women is accepted in Japanese pop culture, Kobayashi says that real life reactions can be different -- he says sometimes people shout insults on the street, and notes that he's been stopped by the police as many as ten times.
Despite the negative attention and discrimination, he thinks it's worth it. It's still outweighed by the positivity of the throngs of people eagerly posing with him as he skips from Shibuya to Harajuku, and by the kids he's able to reach with his message of tolerance, and how liberating being a non-conformist can be.
He says his story proves you don¹t have to be conventional to be accepted.
"That¹s my message," he says. "Be yourself."
CNN's Euan McKirdy contributed to this report
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