The law required transgender people who need to have their biological sex replaced in family records and other official documents to be diagnosed with a gender identity disorder and undergo surgery to remove their reproductive organs.
The plaintiff, who is known only to live in western Japan, filed the petition in 2000, arguing that the surgical requirement imposes an enormous economic and physical burden and violates the constitution’s equivalent rights protections.
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This photo taken on Sept. 27, 2023 shows Chief Justice of Japan’s Supreme Court Saburo Tokura and others presenting their arguments in the gender substitution case before the Grand Chamber of the Tokyo Supreme Court. Japan’s highest court said Wednesday that requiring other transgender people to be sterilized to replace their legal sex is unconstitutional. (STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images)
The case was filed when the plaintiff requested a sex replacement on her family registry, from a man biologically assigned to a woman, and was ignored in the lower courts.
The special law that went into effect in 2004 stipulates that those who wish to undergo sexual replacement must remove their original reproductive organs, including testicles or ovaries, and have a structure that “appears to have parts that resemble the genitals” of the new one. The gender they want to log in with.
The court’s ruling now calls for the government to revise the law, paving the way for other transgender people to replace their gender on official documents without surgery.
Tokyo Rainbow Parade 2023 participants pose for a photo with LGBTQ flags and rainbow masks. Japan is the only G7 member where same-sex marriage is not legal. (Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA Images/LightRocket Getty Images)
Other main points of the resolution were not available.
Human rights groups and the LGBTQ network in Japan had hoped for an update to the law after a separate case in a local family court accepted a transgender man’s request to change his sex without mandatory surgery, saying the rule was unconstitutional.
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In yet another case, the Supreme Court declared the existing law constitutional in 2019 after the case brought by a transgender man seeking an update to the sex registry without the removal of sex organs or the required sterilization surgery.
In that decision, the highest court said the law was constitutional because it aimed to lessen confusion within families and society, while acknowledging that it limited freedom and might not be in tune with the conversion of social values and merit review at a later date. .
Japan’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a law requiring transgender people to shed their reproductive organs to officially replace sex is unconstitutional. (Kyodo News via AP)
The Japanese government adheres to classic paternalistic family values and has not been quick to settle for sexual and family diversity.
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Hundreds of municipalities consider and accept certificates of union for same-sex couples to facilitate the rental of apartments and other areas, but they are not legally binding.
Japan remains the only member of the Group of Seven that does not allow same-sex marriage or any legal protections. Many LGBTQ people still hide their sexuality for fear of discrimination at work and at school.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.