Whenever it¡¯s announced that a bona fide drag celebrity will be visiting Japan, the community here starts buzzing.

¡°Manila Luzon? You know that she is the G.O.A.T.,¡± one drag devotee, using an acronym that spells out ¡°greatest of all time,¡± told me three months ago when Luzon¡¯s arrival was announced. ¡°I am actually so shaken and excited they are bringing her to Japan.¡±

Dec. 1 saw the third and most successful installment of Tokyo¡¯s preeminent drag show Opulence, combining some of Japan¡¯s best local drag talent with three of the celebrity drag queens from the hit TV show ¡°RuPaul¡¯s Drag Race¡±: Luzon, Trinity the Tuck and Kylie Sonique Love. All three queens were immensely popular casting choices, but Luzon ¡ª one of drag¡¯s first internationally recognized Filipina American celebrities and the award-winning host of the ¡°Drag Den¡± television series from the Philippines ¡ª was the name that seemed to send Shinjuku Ni-ch¨­me (Tokyo¡¯s traditionally LGBTQ-friendly neighborhood) into a spin. And now, the G.O.A.T. herself had arrived.

One of the earliest drag queens to achieve international success in the ¡°Drag Race¡± era, Luzon, 42, has been turning heads since her 2011 debut in the show¡¯s third season. A comedian, recording artist and queer rights activist, Luzon is best known for her Cruella de Vil-looking wigs, campy food-themed custom gowns (including pineapple and pork adobo dresses), and ¡ª as her name implies ¡ª her strong connection to her Filipino heritage. Together with fellow founding ¡°Drag Race¡± pantheon members Jujubee, Ongina, Jiggly Caliente and Raja Gemini (who took part in the previous edition of Opulence), Luzon was a queen who defined Asian American drag excellence for a generation of queer kids, both in Asia and among the diaspora. They became the touchstone names by which queens of Asian descent like myself could say, ¡°Look, I can do drag, too! I can be open and gay and fabulous, too!¡±

¡°I always knew I was different,¡± Luzon, whose real name is Karl Westerberg, tells me as we sit down in the lobby of her hotel in Shinjuku. ¡°My mother is from the Philippines, my father is white, born and raised in Minnesota. From an early age I knew what it was like to be raised as a person of mixed ethnicity ... knowing how to live in the in-between. When I came out (as gay), it was another realization of how I was different.¡±

She continues, discussing the situation in American media when she started her television career.

¡°We didn¡¯t have much inspiration or many role models growing up for Asian characters, let alone gay Asian characters, so it¡¯s cool to go on a reality show and meet people being themselves, and...