Japan OKs Gender Change for Trans Woman Without Surgery
Japanese court rules that plaintiff only has to undergo hormone therapy to be legally recognized as a woman.
A Japanese high court ruled that a transgender woman should be able to change their gender legally, as listed on their family registry, without having to undergo surgery, as currently required by law.
Under a 2004 law, five conditions must be met before a person who has socially transitioned can have their gender identity legally recognized in Japan.
Among those conditions are a “sterility requirement” and an “appearance requirement” to have genitalia resembling those of their desired gender.
Taken together, those have been called a “surgical requirement,” notes the Japan Times.
The plaintiff in the case, a trans woman in her 30s, had sought to legally change their gender, but the Hiroshima High Court and the family court ruled that she failed to meet the “surgical requirement.”
The woman’s lawyers then appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled last year that the sterilization requirement was unconstitutional.
The court subsequently sent the case back to the Hiroshima High Court so it could rule on whether requiring surgical interventions to meet the “appearance requirement” was legal.
On July 10, the court ruled that a person assigned male at birth can legally change their gender without undergoing surgery.
The high court found that the plaintiff already resembles a female in bodily appearance due to hormone therapy and that there is no need for her to undergo sterilization.
The court also found that the plaintiff has a right to avoid undergoing invasive and often expensive gender confirmation surgery that would cost over a million yen ($6,190 dollars), according to the newspaper The Mainichi.
“[The law] gives them a tough either-or choice of having the surgery, thereby eliminating the right not to damage one’s body, or eliminating the right to enjoy the legal benefits based on their gender identity,” the ruling reads.
There are differences in how Japanese courts look at the law’s application to transgender men versus transgender women.
For example, it tends to be easier for trans men, simply by undergoing hormone therapy, to meet the “appearance requirement,” while for transgender females, removal of male genitalia has generally been thought necessary to meet the same requirement.
In the particular case of the trans plaintiff, the changes that her body underwent due to hormone therapy were considered sufficient enough to allow her to transition without surgery.
The plaintiff in the case, whose identity is being kept anonymous, celebrated the court’s decision.
“The wish I’ve had for as long as I can remember has finally come true,” she said in a comment released by her lawyer, Kazuyuki Minami. “I am very happy to be liberated from the difficulties of living due to the gap between the gender I live socially and that on my family register.”
Minami also praised the ruling, noting, “Although the ruling didn’t say outright that it was unconstitutional, it was a good decision because it said the surgery requirement could be in violation of the Constitution.”
As long as the surgical requirement is not ruled unconstitutional, it will remain difficult for most transgender women to transition solely through hormone therapy without undergoing some surgical procedure. Such a change, however, would likely have to be approved by the Japanese Diet, the country’s national legislature.
“It was thought that gender reassignment from male to female without surgery would not be recognized. While it is significant that the high court’s decision clarified that it is possible, it won’t likely become something widespread,” Mikiya Nakatsuka, a professor at Okayama University’s Graduate School of Health Sciences, and the chair of the Japanese Society of Gender Incongruence, told The Mainichi.
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