Transgender Ruling Is Step Forward for L.G.B.T.Q. Rights in Japan

Japan’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that requiring transgender people to undergo sterilization in order to legally change their gender identity is unconstitutional, a step forward for L.G.B.T.Q. rights in a nation that has been slow to recognize them.

In the unanimous decision, the court said that a legal clause forcing the plaintiff, a transgender woman, to be sterilized before changing her gender on the all-important Japanese family registry certificate “restricted her freedom not to harm herself against her will.”

Still, the court did not rule on a separate requirement that transgender people must undergo transition surgery in order to legally register as the gender with which they identify. In practice, that means many transgender people will still be unable to make the legal change. The top court said it would send the case back to the High Court for further discussion of the transition surgery clause.

“In the end, the result is that my gender cannot be changed,” the unnamed plaintiff said in a statement read by one of her lawyers, Kazuyuki Minami, at a news conference. “I’m very disappointed that my case still has to go on.”

Although not a full victory, activists welcomed Wednesday’s decision, which reversed a 2019 Supreme Court decision that said the sterilization clause was constitutional.

The decision will “change the lives of so many trans people,” said Yuichi Kamiya, secretary-general of the Japan Alliance for L.G.B.T.Q. Legislation.