gender reassignment japan

Japan: Transgender rights progress as court rules surgery not required for legal gender change 

Responding to the Supreme Court of Japan’s ruling on Wednesday that a law requiring people who want to legally change gender to undergo reproductive surgery is unconstitutional, Amnesty International East Asia Researcher Boram Jang said:  

“This is a landmark decision for transgender rights in Japan, and the latest encouraging sign that countries in the region are reevaluating discriminatory practices or laws affecting LGBTI people. The court’s ruling is an important step forward, but the fight for LGBTI rights in Japan remains an uphill battle. 

“Amnesty International continues to call on the Japanese authorities to ensure legal gender recognition is not contingent on psychiatric diagnosis, medical treatment such as gender-affirming surgery or other abusive or discriminatory requirements such as being unmarried or not having children. It must be a quick, accessible and transparent administrative process based on an individual’s self-determination.” 

Background:  

The Supreme Court issued a ruling on 25 October in a family law case, declaring that the stipulation of the Special Law on Gender Identity Disorder, which mandates surgical sterilization as a prerequisite for gender reassignment, is unconstitutional in Japan. This decision was based on the determination that the sterilization requirement runs counter to Article 13 of the Constitution, which emphasizes the importance of respect for individual rights. 

The Special Law on Gender Identity Disorder stipulates the procedures for changing a person’s legal gender on the family register. If a person is diagnosed with gender identity disorder by doctors and files a petition with the Family Court, and meets all of the following five requirements: (1) 18 years of age or older, (2) not currently married, (3) no minor children, (4) no reproductive function, and (5) genitalia similar in appearance to those of the sex after the change, the change of legal gender will be approved. 

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Japan's Supreme Court hands down a landmark transgender rights decision

Anthony Kuhn

The unnamed plaintiff's lawyers, Kazuyuki Minami, left, and Masafumi Yoshida, right, speak to media after the ruling of the Supreme Court on Wednesday in Tokyo. Eugene Hoshiko/AP hide caption

The unnamed plaintiff's lawyers, Kazuyuki Minami, left, and Masafumi Yoshida, right, speak to media after the ruling of the Supreme Court on Wednesday in Tokyo.

SEOUL — Japan's Supreme Court has ruled that an existing requirement for sterilization surgery for people who seek to legally change their gender is unconstitutional.

The unanimous decision on Wednesday by the court's 15-judge Grand Bench is being hailed by campaigners as a landmark for LGBTQ+ rights in Japan. But as the Supreme Court sent the plaintiff's case back to a high court for further examination, her fate remains unclear.

The plaintiff, identified only as a transgender woman "under 50," had sought to legally change gender in her family registry from assigned male at birth to female. But her request was subsequently denied by lower courts, because she did not undergo sterilization surgery required under Japanese law.

In her complaint, the plaintiff argued the sterilization procedure would impose a physical and economic burden on her, and would deprive her of constitutional rights to pursue happiness and be free from discrimination. Her lawyer argued that her reproductive abilities had already been in "extreme decline" following years of hormone therapy.

Legal gender change in Japan requires a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, being at least 18 years of age, being unmarried and having no underage children.

It also requires the person to have no functional reproductive glands. And it requires that the person's genitals resemble "those of the opposite gender."

The court stopped short of issuing a decision on that last requirement, and requested a lower court to give the issue additional deliberation.

"I am very disappointed that my gender change will not be realized at this moment," the plaintiff said in a statement issued by her lawyers.

The top court acknowledged that the current rules force people "to make a tough choice between surgery and abandoning the decision to change genders."

It added that requiring sterilization violates constitutional guarantees of freedom from "invasion into their body against their will."

Human Rights Watch said Wednesday's "judgment is a major step toward upholding the rights to health, privacy, and bodily autonomy of trans people in Japan. It will also resonate regionally and globally as governments increasingly recognize that the process for legal recognition of trans people needs to be separate from any medical interventions."

Judicial statistics show that nearly 12,000 people in Japan have legally changed their gender under since the current law came into force in 2004.

United Nations agencies and other international bodies have said that involuntary sterilization surgery is a violation of human rights and should be eliminated.

Advocates of retaining the sterilization surgery requirement argue that dropping it could sow confusion in society or embolden men posing as transgender women to invade women-only toilets and bathing areas.

• transgender

Japan's top court says surgery need for gender change unconstitutional

Japan's Supreme Court on Wednesday declared in a historic ruling that a law requiring surgery to remove a person's reproductive capabilities to register a gender change was unconstitutional in a case brought by a transgender woman.

The judgment, which was a consensus of all 15 justices of the top court's Grand Bench, marked a turnaround from a 2019 top court decision that had found a legal provision requiring sterilization for a gender change on a family registry constitutional.

People "are forced to make a tough choice between surgery and abandoning the decision to change genders," the top court said, citing progress in medical knowledge since the law for people with gender dysphoria came into force in 2004 and an increasing trend overseas against required sterilization.

The latest development will lead the government to review the sterilization requirement, opening up the possibility of transgender people officially changing their gender without removing ovaries or testicles.

But the top court's Grand Bench stopped short of reaching a conclusion on another surgery requirement that focuses on the physical appearance of the genitals. It mandates that they closely match the gender the individual seeks to change to, and the top court has requested a high court to reevaluate this particular requirement.

The applicant in the case, who was born as a man but identifies as a woman, said the outcome was "not as hoped."

"I am very disappointed that my gender change will not be realized at this moment," the woman, who lives in western Japan and has only disclosed her age as younger than 50, said in a statement conveyed through her lawyers.

She has been hoping to change her legal gender without surgery, asserting that her reproductive capabilities have declined following years of hormone therapy.

The surgery requirement "causes an extreme physical and economic burden" and therefore violates the Constitution, which guarantees respect for individuals and equality under the law, she has argued.

The woman's request for a gender change has been denied by a family court and high court due to her not undergoing surgery.

The top court, however, acknowledged Wednesday that required sterilization is a restriction violating the Constitution's Article 13, which guarantees individuals' freedom from "invasion into their body against their will."

The Japanese law on gender dysphoria stipulates five conditions for those wishing to register as a member of the opposite sex, in addition to a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from at least two physicians.

The five conditions comprise being no less than 18 years old, unmarried, having no underage children, having "no reproductive glands or whose reproductive glands have permanently lost function," and having "a body that appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs of those of the opposite gender."

The top court explained that the sterilization requirement was believed to have been established to prevent "confusion and drastic societal changes," such as instances where a child is born via the reproductive function associated with the individual's original gender.

However, it concluded that it would be "extremely rare" for problems to occur even without the requirement. It noted that legal issues on child-parent relationships can be solved through legislation.

From a medical standpoint, sex-reassignment surgery was previously seen as the final stage in a series of treatments, but currently, such a phased treatment approach is no longer taken, it said.

The top court also pointed to a "greater understanding regarding gender dysphoria" in the public, with more than 10,000 people having successfully changed genders on the family registry over the past 19 years.

In 2019, the top court's Second Petty Bench found the sterilization requirement "currently constitutional" in a case involving a transgender man but also called for a "continuous" examination of the issue in accordance with societal changes.

Earlier this month, the Hamamatsu branch of the Shizuoka Family Court ruled the sterilization requirement unconstitutional, allowing a transgender man who brought the case to court to be listed as male without surgery. It was the first such judicial judgment in Japan, according to lawyers.

Discussions over the necessity for surgery have been increasing in Japan, with many countries worldwide already deeming surgery unnecessary in order to switch genders.

Yasuhiko Watanabe, a professor at Kyoto Sangyo University, said Japan's law was in line with global standards when it first went into force, but it has since "fallen behind" as countries revised their own requirements.

About 40 out of approximately 50 countries that have laws on gender change do not require the loss of reproductive capabilities, the Hamamatsu branch said when it issued its decision.

Sweden and the Netherlands abolished the sterilization requirement in 2013, while Spain and Britain never mandated it when they put in place laws in the 2000s.

But even if the sterilization requirement is abolished in Japan, the physical appearance condition could still weigh on transgender people seeking official gender change.

There are cases in which female-to-male hormone therapy could lead to physical changes that alter the appearance of genitals, but male-to-female therapy may not produce similar results and could still require surgery in order to fulfill the requirements, pundits say.

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/japans-supreme-court-says-required-sterilization-surgery-to-officially-change-gender-is-unconstitutional

Japan’s Supreme Court says required sterilization surgery to officially change gender is unconstitutional

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a law requiring transgender people to undergo sterilization surgery in order to officially change their gender is unconstitutional, a landmark verdict welcomed by advocates as a sign of growing acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights.

The ruling by the top court’s 15-judge Grand Bench applies to the sterilization portion of the 2003 law only. It does not address the constitutionality of requiring gender-transition surgery in general to obtain a state-sanctioned gender change — a requirement also criticized by international rights and medical groups.

READ MORE: Unification Church slams Japan’s dissolution request as a threat to religious freedom

The law forces those who seek a gender change a “cruel choice between accepting the sterilization surgery that causes intense bodily invasion and giving up important legal benefits of being treated according to their gender identity,” the Supreme Court said.

The decision, which requires the government to reconsider the law, is a first step toward allowing transgender people to change their identity in official documents without getting sterilized. But it was not a full victory for the claimant because the Supreme Court sent her case back to the high court to further examine the requirement for gender-affirmation surgery.

The claimant in 2020 sought a gender change in her family registry — to female from assigned male at birth — but her request was turned down by lower courts.

The decision comes at a time of heightened awareness of issues surrounding LGBTQ+ people in Japan and is a partial victory for that community.

The judges unanimously ruled that the part of the law requiring sterilization for a gender change is unconstitutional, according to the court document. The claimant’s lawyers said the decision that did not find the gender-affirmation surgery requirement unconstitutional was regrettable because it delays the settlement of that issue.

The claimant, identified only as a transgender woman in her late 40s living in western Japan, said in a statement read by one of her lawyers Kazuyuki Minami that she was “surprised” by the decision and was “disappointed” that a decision on the gender-affirmation surgery requirement is delayed.

It causes her more ordeal and court sessions for “further scrutiny about the inside of her underpants,” Minami said.

Under the law, transgender people who want to have their gender assigned at birth changed on family registries and other official documents must be diagnosed as having gender dysmorphia and must undergo an operation to remove their sex organs.

Other requirements are that they are unmarried and do not have children under 18.

Kanae Doi, Japan director of Human Rights Watch said it was “great news” that the top court unanimously found the sterilization unconstitutional and that the government now must follow up. “The government is obliged to amend the law to remove the sterilization and gender-affirmation surgery requirements,” she said. “Any invasion of the body against one’s will is a human rights violation.”

LGBTQ+ activists in Japan have recently stepped up efforts to pass an anti-discrimination law since a former aide to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in February that he wouldn’t want to live next to LGBTQ+ people and that citizens would flee Japan if same-sex marriage were allowed.

But changes have come slowly and Japan remains the only Group of Seven member that does not allow same-sex marriage or legal protections, including an effective anti-discrimination law .

The claimant originally filed the request in 2020, saying the surgery requirement forces a huge economic and physical burden and that it violates the constitution’s equal rights protections.

Rights groups and the LGBTQ+ community in Japan have been hopeful for a change in the law after a local family court, in an unprecedented ruling earlier this month, accepted a request by a claimant for a gender change without the compulsory surgery, saying the rule is unconstitutional.

READ MORE: Japan’s top court says government restrictions on transgender employee’s use of restrooms illegal

The special law that took effect in 2004 states that people who wish to register a gender change must have their original sex organs, including testes or ovaries, removed and have a body that “appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs” of the new gender they want to register with.

More than 10,000 Japanese have had their genders officially changed since then, according to court documents from the Oct. 11 ruling that accepted Gen Suzuki’s request for a gender change without the required surgery.

Surgery to remove sex organs is not required in most of the approximately 50 European and central Asian countries that have laws allowing people to change their gender on official documents, the Shizuoka ruling said. The practice of changing one’s gender in such a way has become mainstream in many places around the world, it noted.

In a country of conformity where the conservative government sticks to traditional paternalistic family values and is reluctant to accept sexual and family diversity, many LGBTQ+ people still hide their sexuality due to fear of discrimination at work and schools.

Some groups opposing more inclusivity for transgender people, especially to those changing from assigned male at birth to female, had submitted 20,000 petitions Tuesday to the Supreme Court, asking it to keep the surgery requirement in place to keep “women’s spaces safe.”

Hundreds of municipalities now issue partnership certificates for same-sex couples to ease hurdles in renting apartments and other areas, but they are not legally binding.

In 2019, the Supreme Court in another case filed by a transgender man seeking a gender registration change without the required sexual organ removal and sterilization surgery found the law constitutional.

In that ruling, the top court said the law was constitutional because it was meant to reduce confusion in families and society, though it acknowledged that it restricts freedom and could become out of step with changing social values and should be reviewed later.

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Japan’s top court strikes down requiring sterilization surgery to change gender

• Copy Link URL Copied!

TOKYO —  Japan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a law requiring transgender people to undergo sterilization surgery in order to officially change their gender is unconstitutional, a landmark verdict welcomed by advocates as a sign of growing acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights.

The ruling by the top court’s 15-judge Grand Bench applies to the sterilization portion of the 2003 law only. It does not address the constitutionality of requiring gender-transition surgery in general to obtain a state-sanctioned gender change — a requirement also criticized by international rights and medical groups.

The law forces those who seek a gender change a “cruel choice between accepting the sterilization surgery that causes intense bodily invasion and giving up important legal benefits of being treated according to their gender identity,” the Supreme Court said.

The decision, which requires the government to reconsider the law, is a first step toward allowing transgender people to change their identity in official documents without getting sterilized. But it was not a full victory for the claimant because the Supreme Court sent her case back to the high court to further examine the requirement for gender-affirmation surgery.

GOP candidates outlined sweeping anti-trans agenda at presidential debate

Candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and former Vice President Mike Pence took aim at gender-affirming care at Wednesday night’s debate, vowing to ban it for adults as well as minors.

The claimant in 2020 sought a gender change in her family registry — to female from assigned male at birth — but her request was turned down by lower courts.

The decision comes at a time of heightened awareness of issues surrounding LGBTQ+ people in Japan and is a partial victory for that community.

The judges unanimously ruled that the part of the law requiring sterilization for a gender change is unconstitutional, according to the court document. The claimant’s lawyers said the decision that did not find the gender-affirmation surgery requirement unconstitutional was regrettable because it delays the settlement of that issue.

The claimant, identified only as a transgender woman in her late 40s living in western Japan, said in a statement read by one of her lawyers Kazuyuki Minami that she was “surprised” by the decision and was “disappointed” that a decision on the gender-affirmation surgery requirement is delayed.

It causes her more ordeal and court sessions for “further scrutiny about the inside of her underpants,” Minami said.

Transgender youth are suffering because of discriminatory politics. Here’s how to support these kids

As some lawmakers seek to restrict gender-affirming care, experts say our support and advocacy can go a long way toward helping young transgender people.

Under the law, transgender people who want to have their gender assigned at birth changed on family registries and other official documents must be diagnosed as having gender dysmorphia and must undergo an operation to remove their sex organs.

Other requirements are that they are unmarried and do not have children under 18.

Kanae Doi, Japan director of Human Rights Watch, said it was “great news” that the top court unanimously found the sterilization unconstitutional and that the government now must follow up. “The government is obliged to amend the law to remove the sterilization and gender-affirmation surgery requirements,” she said. “Any invasion of the body against one’s will is a human rights violation.”

LGBTQ+ activists in Japan have recently stepped up efforts to pass an anti-discrimination law since a former aide to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in February that he wouldn’t want to live next to LGBTQ+ people and that citizens would flee Japan if same-sex marriage were allowed.

But changes have come slowly and Japan remains the only Group of Seven member that does not allow same-sex marriage or legal protections, including an effective anti-discrimination law.

Montana judge blocks law to ban hormone and other medical care for transgender minors

A Montana state judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of a law to ban hormone treatment and other medical care for transgender minors.

The claimant originally filed the request in 2020, saying the surgery requirement forces a huge economic and physical burden and that it violates the constitution’s equal rights protections.

Rights groups and the LGBTQ+ community in Japan have been hopeful for a change in the law after a local family court, in an unprecedented ruling earlier this month, accepted a request by a claimant for a gender change without the compulsory surgery, saying the rule is unconstitutional.

The special law that took effect in 2004 states that people who wish to register a gender change must have their original sex organs, including testes or ovaries, removed and have a body that “appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs” of the new gender they want to register with.

More than 10,000 Japanese have had their genders officially changed since then, according to court documents from the Oct. 11 ruling that accepted Gen Suzuki’s request for a gender change without the required surgery.

Surgery to remove sex organs is not required in most of the approximately 50 European and central Asian countries that have laws allowing people to change their gender on official documents, the Shizuoka ruling said. The practice of changing one’s gender in such a way has become mainstream in many places around the world, it noted.

How GOP efforts to restrict trans rights take a page from the antiabortion playbook

As conservative lawmakers introduce a record number of anti-transgender bills, abortion and trans rights advocates see mirrored fights for bodily autonomy.

In a country of conformity where the conservative government sticks to traditional paternalistic family values and is reluctant to accept sexual and family diversity, many LGBTQ+ people still hide their sexuality due to fear of discrimination at work and schools.

Some groups opposing more inclusivity for transgender people, especially to those changing from assigned male at birth to female, had submitted 20,000 petitions Tuesday to the Supreme Court, asking it to keep the surgery requirement in place to keep “women’s spaces safe.”

Hundreds of municipalities now issue partnership certificates for same-sex couples to ease hurdles in renting apartments and other areas, but they are not legally binding.

In 2019, the Supreme Court in another case filed by a transgender man seeking a gender registration change without the required sexual organ removal and sterilization surgery found the law constitutional.

In that ruling, the top court said the law was constitutional because it was meant to reduce confusion in families and society, though it acknowledged that it restricts freedom and could become out of step with changing social values and should be reviewed later.

More to Read

California’s protections for transgender care could be tested under Trump

A second high court rules that Japan’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional

Supreme Court will tackle transgender rights, ‘ghost guns’ in term beginning Monday

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