Its kind of sad to see them made a joke of but then gay/trans people on TV in the west started the same way. We've come a long way since Mr Humphries though, hopefully Japan will catch up quick and it won't take them 30 years.

Do you understand the context of what's going on here? I would not say Japan has very much "catching up" to do.

Look! Its a man...but its a woman! Hahaha!
Its Hard Gay all over again.
Japan most certainly does have catching up to do in several areas. Not just LGBT issues. Most countries have areas where they're behind the curve.

It is just different. In many ways I have found Japanese people more tolerant of non-straight people, or those with alternative lifestyles than there are in the US. Yes, Hard Gay is not a progressive example, but the American comedian Tracy Morgan just apologized for saying he would stab and kill his son if he turned out to be gay... on stage, and for laughs.

It seems to me the transgender and cross-dressing talent that appear on Japanese TV do a pretty good job of sticking up for themselves. And for the most part they aren't made fun of for being different, they are made fun of for being unique. It doesn't matter if you are gay, fat, wear glasses, dye your hair, are from a foreign country... whatever makes you unique will be a source of laughs. It isn't discrimination when everyone on stage gets it equally.

So where are the transgender and cross-dressing talent appearing daily on American TV?

No idea, I've never been to America. From what I hear from there America is also very behind things on LGBT issues however.

Behind relative to What?/Where?

It feels funny to me that anyone would call America "behind" when it comes to any humanitarian issue...
I say that because to me America feels overly sensitive to a lot of it!

Well personally I'm not too fond of homosexual...but really as long as some dude doesn't come around me and invade my personal space then I'm cool with it. To each his own really...
As for those Japanese dudes (girls) well loool that's how they make money and a lot of most likely :p

I agree. I don't know how ANYONE could accuse Japan of not being tolerant of gays of all people. They do a worse job of empowering the genders than gay people. To suggest that a country,where if they don't like you they will NOT call you gay,is homophobic is absurd.

it's getting better but it's far from a good situation here,
It's still very difficult for someone to come out here
and if they do life changes a lot