A Japanese high court on Wednesday approved an official gender change for a transgender woman who has not undergone confirmation surgery as legally required, in a rare decision.
The clause requiring gender confirmation surgery is "suspected of being unconstitutional" as it forces an individual to choose between undergoing surgery or giving up on gender change, the Hiroshima High Court said.
The court acknowledged that hormone therapy can alter the appearance of genitalia even without surgery and admitted that the body parts of the petitioner, who was assigned male at birth, are already "feminized."
The petitioner, a resident of western Japan who has only disclosed her age as younger than 50, said through her lawyer she was "happy to be free of the difficulties" stemming from the disparity between her official gender status and the gender she identifies with.
The high court approved the gender change for the petitioner in reexamining the case sent back by the Supreme Court.
In the trial, the petitioner argued that to satisfy the law's clause on gender confirmation, surgery to remove the penis was required, which was an excessive burden.
But the request for a gender change had been rejected by the family court and the high court due to the lack of gender confirmation surgery.
It is extremely rare for a gender change to be approved for male-to-female transition without gender confirmation surgery, such as through removal of the testicles, according to the lawyer.
The high court, meanwhile, maintained that the purpose of the clause on gender confirmation surgery, which is to prevent exposure to genitals of the opposite sex in places such as public baths, is legitimate.
The top court, in a landmark ruling in October, said another legal requirement for a person's reproductive organs to be removed to register a gender change was unconstitutional, but it said the high court should revisit the gender confirmation surgery clause.
The law for people with gender dysphoria, which came into force in 2004, stipulates five conditions for those wishing to register a gender change, in addition to a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from at least two physicians.
The five conditions are that an individual be no less than 18 years old, unmarried, have no underage children, have "no reproductive glands" or possess reproductive glands that "have permanently lost function," and possess "a body that appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs of those of the opposite gender."
The high court decision could add pressure on the government to review the clauses requiring surgery, legal experts said.
In the October ruling, the top court said the law's sterilization requirement violated Article 13 of the Constitution, which the court said guarantees individuals' freedom from "invasion into their body against their will."
Public awareness regarding protection of the rights of sexual minorities has been growing in Japan, the only member of the Group of Seven countries that has not legalized same-sex marriages or civil unions.
In March, another Japanese high court ruled that the country's lack of legal recognition for same-sex marriages is unconstitutional, upholding a lower court decision and in line with other district court judgments on the issue.
On the state level, Japan's parliament enacted legislation in March last year to promote understanding of sexual minorities, aimed primarily at eliminating discrimination based on sexual orientation.
An increasing number of municipalities have also issued partnership certificates to make it easier for same-sex partners to enjoy some of the same public service benefits as heterosexual couples, although they are not legally binding.
The latest ruling by the high court is final as it was uncontested but only applies to the petitioner.
© KYODO
34 Comments
Patient Zero
Nobody is "assigned" a sex at birth. You are either biologically male, or biologically female.
Gene Hennigh
There are inter-sex people born all the time. People with a vagina and gonads. People with vulvas and penises. Variations of sexual mix.
These people are often operated on as infants to genderize them. Some parents wait until their child is a teen and can decide what they want to do.
These people really are both he and she. I don't know why so many people don't know that.
owzer
The dude is a male. What he identifies as is irrelevant.
We are not assigned a gender/sex. We are identified.
Corey
JaviLM
So, the two people you criticize, you know their religion. You don’t know? Oh, but they must be religious because of their viewpoint. You hate religion and you hate their opinion, so the two must go together. Okay, got it.
TaiwanIsNotChina
So rather than a limited ruling that say, transgender people aren't allowed in public baths, they decide transgender people must get radical surgery? Checks out.
Sam Watters
@JaviLM. Not everyone who disagrees with you is a racist or a bigot or a homophobe.
ian
Good to know they place high importance on the reason
Forevermore
“The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently published a policy statement entitled, Ensuring comprehensive care and support for transgender and gender-diverse children and adolescents (Rafferty, 2018). It was quite a remarkable document: Although almost all clinics and professional associations in the world use what’s called the watchful waiting approach to helping GD children, the AAP statement rejected that consensus, endorsing only gender affirmation. With AAP taking such a dramatic departure from other professional associations, I was immediately curious about what evidence led them to that conclusion. (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and all that.) As I read the works on which they based their policy however, I was pretty surprised…rather alarmed, actually: These documents simply did not say what AAP claimed they did. In fact, the references that AAP cited as the basis of their policy instead outright contradicted that policy, repeatedly endorsing watchful waiting. ”
http://www.jamescantor.org/uploads/6/2/9/3/62939641/cantor_fact-check_of_aap.pdf
Gaijinjland
@Antiquesaving
That’s a slippery slope and just a what if hypothetical.
There are so many other things in this world to worry about than the off chance of a trans woman going into an onsen.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Someone among the 8 billion people on Earth will leave you confused.
Start of discussion
Gaijinjland
@Ian,
Restrooms are a necessity. Onsen is not. And a passable trans woman would probably cause more trouble for everyone and turn more heads if they went into the men’s room anyway.
ian
Yes, I agree.
What I'm saying is if they want to use the restrooms of the gender they identify with then of course they also want the same regarding showers and toilets
ian
I'm not okay with young kids seeing junks of adults of opposite sex, for one
JaviLM
Mr Goodman and daito_hak:
You religious bigots should mind your own business and stop telling other people what their identity is.
ian
That's complicated.
Very difficult especially in emergency situations.
Jonathan Prin
There are genetical disorders where persons don't have standard X and Y chromosomes (ex : Klinefelter, Dwyer, De la Chapelle syndromes).
So it is not a black or white situation.
Although in that case, that person has obviously a trunk which would raise more than eyebrows in a female environment.
I don't care, until it costs excessive tax payers money and unnecessary taking justice time. I am a man so would not feel violated but women would in certain circumstances and I understand that.
Some respect from both sides needed with prior explanations from the person with disorder.
Mr Goodman
It's impossible to change your gender !
End of discussion
windspiel
Was the Y chromosome changed?
Wandora
So, in short, it's unconstitutional to insist on the acceptance of reality.
ian
Forevermore
A man who believes he is really a woman, but he wants to keep his penis? Sounds like he's suffering some severe confusion about his own sexuality.
Gay, liberal, atheist James Cantor Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, has studied this issue extensively and is of the opinion that gender dysphoria is a manifestation of borderline personality disorder.
These people deserve compassion, but they don't get to treat the rest of us so disrespectfully as to insist on redefining reality. Here's a link to some of Cantor's study,
Expert Report of James Cantor, PhD.
https://dm1l19z832j5m.cloudfront.net/public/2023-06/Boe-v-Marshall-2023-05-19-Cantor-Report.pdf
/dev/random
Jurisprudence constante aside, courts should not decide on individual cases anymore? What?
owzer
How anyone presents themselves to society is society’s business. How you use (or abuse) words is society’s business.
How they identify is up to them but truth, the truth, remains constant.
Why do people resort to name calling when they don’t like what another person has to say? Anyway, it’s not just religious people; anyone who has a firm grasp of science would agree.
Hervé L'Eisa
"the body parts of the petitioner, who was assigned male at birth, are already "feminized.""
So, the "outie" has become an "innie"?
Nonsense. It's a male masquerading as a female.
Antiquesaving
Is it?
Lia Thomas?
The others? Search the news, daily there are more and more women and girls complaining about being confronted with male genitalia in changing rooms.
The NHS is being sued by nurses because a "self identifying woman" uses the women's changing room, walks around naked and "lingers" far longer than most do. Also he/she has a female partner and children!
The slippery slope is men dressing as women, eroding of women's rights and the gains the women fought for years to final get safe spaces, their own equality in sports, etc..
ian
You mean they want to use the restrooms for females but don't want to use the showers and onsens for females?
Antiquesaving
I was a single Father, I would take my 2 children to the Onsen for a treat.
Seeing I cannot accompany my daughter into the women's side, she once was old enough would go alone or as a young teen we would bring her friend along to keep her company.
Now think, how comfortable are you and how comfortable and safe will these young girls feel if a fully intacked male, suddenly walked into the women's osen?
And yes we point out men as women not women as men because the stats show that non surgically altered women to men avoid going into men's locker rooms, changing rooms and even men's sports, they normally chose to go into the women's and chose to play sports in the women's category.
TheRegulator
Japan if you are going to play ball with Nato you know this type of policy to special minorities is mandatory.
ian
Something just occurred to mind.
What do transgenders put on medical forms? Obviously medical forms ask for biological sex not the gender people identify with.
But what do transgenders actually put on the forms?
falseflagsteve
This bloke can never be a woman
Antiquesaving
This isn't what this is about, and this is the "go to" argument to try and must the subject.
リッチ
Applying only to 1 person. Am what a waste of time and money for the government to even challenge it.
daito_hak
This is a man not a woman (the term trans-woman is just nonsense). This is he, not she. This is his not her. Even with a surgery he would still be a man whose penis was just cut off. That does not make him a woman. This man needs help, he is mentally disturbed. Stop giving him more validation for his craziness.
Antiquesaving
Good question, and the answer can be seen in other countries.
Look at Canada, in Toronto the government spent millions on medical busses to sever this after the (LGB) alphabet community.
Apparently they refuse to go to the hospitals because it "traumatized" them.
The need to fill in a form with biological sex was "triggering".
The concept that the doctor needs to possibly know what biological parts the patient has is too much for them.
A patient complaining about urinary problems, abdominal pain, etc... may need a different specialist depending on male or female internal organs, but to even suggest that makes them upset.
Welcome to the new world logic!