Hi, Stan’s stans! Stan Fukase, more commonly known under his handle “World of XTRA”, is an online content creator, drag artist and performer based in Tokyo. Stan began consistently uploading to his YouTube channel in April 2020 and has garnered almost 90 million views. 

Through his content, he showcases his confidence and daily life as an Asian LGBTQ+ creator, creating a safe space for people who feel misunderstood and inspiring hundreds of thousands across the globe. Known for his signature editing style, Stan has quickly amassed well over three million followers across all his social platforms.

Metropolis: Your World of XTRA subscribers have doubled since we last spoke with you. You’re approaching the one million milestone on YouTube, while on TikTok, you’re way past that. How has the increased attention changed the way you develop new content?

However, I’ve learned that content creation isn’t always about pleasing my audience but about creating content that’s genuine to myself. That’s one of the things I’m proud of—throughout the years, I never lost myself just because of a growing audience, and I’ve always been authentically me. I think that’s also one of the reasons people follow me.

M: How do you deal with your growing fame, particularly when it comes to interacting with fans? Do you get recognized a lot when you’re out and about in Japan?

SF: I live a pretty comfortable life in Japan, and most of my audience is overseas. I can still walk around my neighborhood unshowered and only in my PJs without anyone asking for pictures or anything. Occasionally, I do get recognized in Japan, but it’s mostly been pleasant experiences in the city centers like Shibuya and Shinjuku. I love meeting my “stans” because I always realize real people are watching my content, and it’s not just a username on a screen.

M: Are the reactions you get from Japanese fans vs those abroad different?

SF: It’s surprisingly not that different. However, meeting them in real life can be different sometimes. Japanese fans can be more calm and shy, but I’ve had overseas stans come up to me screaming and crying, telling me I’ve “changed their lives” and I “saved” them, and I never know how to react. Because to me, I’m just doing what I love from the beginning, which is creating online videos. I don’t realize what impact I can have on people watching from small towns living with family members who don’t fully accept them.

M: Do you feel Japan is a good place for the World of XTRA’s style of content creation? 

SF: I would say yes. I think having the layer of “living in Japan” on top of being openly gay and outgoing, being mixed-ethnicity, having a little brother who’s also gay, having a straight older brother, having a very supportive mom who’s also a YouTuber, and growing up Catholic, makes my content even more enjoyable.

A lot of people think of Japan as a very conservative and homogenous place, and I feel that having someone like me showcase the country from a different perspective is one of the reasons that a lot of my viewers watch me. Vlogging is also fairly straightforward in Japan because it’s a very safe country, but more places don’t allow filming here than abroad.

M: To add to that, what would you say are the pros and cons of working as a content creator here? 

One of the pros for me specifically is privacy. As I mentioned, most of my viewers are overseas, so I get to live life in Japan and do things every other person would do, like walk around the city. One of the cons is that many US brands that want to work with me have a hard time because I live in Japan. That’s kind of about it.

M: How do you approach creating content for YouTube and TikTok? I wonder how they differ in expressing yourself and reaching your audience.

SF: It’s pretty straightforward. The length itself and the attention spans of the viewers of each platform are very different. I use YouTube to show my day-to-day life with vlogs and to showcase places I visit with long-form content. My YouTube videos take a lot of time and effort to create, and I see them as my babies. TikTok is “less serious” with short challenges, but it has to be snappy to catch people’s attention. 

How the videos get recommended is also different. TikTok has a For You Page that shows your videos to people with one scroll. It can be less memorable because of its length. However, I feel like my YouTube stans remember me with just one video. They have to purposefully click on a video to watch it.

M: Your friends (Justin and Patrick) frequently appear in your videos. How did you become friends, and how is the process of collaborating with them?

SF: As embarrassing as it sounds, I met Justin on Tinder, and I met Patrick on Grindr (laughs), and they’ve become my bestest friends in Tokyo. I don’t see our videos as “collaborating” because I just vlog our friendship, and nothing is staged. We don’t just hang out for content. The videos we filmed are our fundamental interactions, and we just hang out. I’m super proud of them for having their passions, and I’m happy they’re always willing to show up in my videos, too!

M: Your family (particularly Mama and Stewie) is also featured in your videos. How do you balance private and public, and how is the family dynamic when working together?

SF: One of the biggest blessings as a family of content creators is staying genuine with or without a camera. As unbelievable as it may sound to some people, we are precisely the way we are off camera as we are on camera. Content creation happened naturally to us. I think it’s because we’ve always been so close as a family, and we all have the same hobbies, likes, and dislikes. Filming videos and creating online content became another thing we enjoyed doing together. 

We are also super good at communicating if we don’t feel like creating content, and we always respect each other when it comes to that. One of the things that we can have conflict on is who gets to post what. Sometimes, when we film a challenge video or someone comes up with a content idea, we argue about who gets to film it and post it. It usually ends up being me because I’m the most stubborn one (laughs). 

M: As a gay man, what do you think about the recent trajectory of LGBTQ+ rights in Japan?

SF: I can’t deny that I’m very blessed to be living in Japan as a gay man. I feel very safe here. Although countries like the USA have more LGBTQ+ rights and protection laws, some more aggressive people could hurt people like me. Living in Japan, especially now living with my boyfriend, I feel very privileged to hold his hand in public without worrying about anyone attacking us. 

There is also a solid LGBTQ+ community in Japan, and it’s pretty easy to find welcoming, like-minded people in the community. That said, Japan still lacks a lot of the laws that allow LGBTQ+ people to live just like heterosexual people. As a gay man in a serious long-term relationship, like many others, I hope they legalize same-sex marriage soon. 

M: You’re also a drag artist, and XTRA is your drag persona. How is XTRA different from Stan? 

SF: I always saw XTRA as Stan’s excuse to be unapologetically outgoing and crazy. But honestly, I haven’t performed as XTRA for two years now, so it’s been difficult to identify as her. However, I always say XTRA lives within me, and she’s mainly the reason I started wanting to showcase myself more online. During this drag hiatus, I feel like Stan and XTRA have become one. 

M: What does the future hold for you? Any remaining goals you’d like to achieve?

SF: I’ve achieved so many things throughout the past years as a content creator, but I want to keep going. As many creators dream of, I want to work with more of my dream brands and meet my idols who inspired me to become who I am today, like Lady Gaga! I’m still super young, and I want to venture out into many different things, like modeling, acting, reality TV, and more. Maybe even write a song; who knows? But one thing is for sure: I will always stay true to myself and always be authentic and genuine.

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