Japan has made history by acknowledging a man as a woman without gender-affirming surgery. On July 10, the Yomiuri Shinbun reported that the Hiroshima High Court recognized the gender change on the family register when it was applied for by a party who did not meet the requirement of having reproductive organs that closely resembled the changed gender.
Last October, the Supreme Court of Japan ruled that the “Special Law on Gender Identity Disorder” provision, which essentially requires surgery to remove fertility, was declared unconstitutional, finding that it “forces an extreme choice between having surgery and giving up gender transition, and the degree of its limitation is severe.”
Declaring that the attendance requirement was not determined in the second trial, the court remanded the case to the High Court. The plaintiff presented was a person in their 40s living in western Japan and has never had gender-affirming surgery. They currently receive hormone therapy and live as a woman. “Forcing the patient to choose between giving up legal treatment according to their gender identity or undergoing surgery when needed infringements on the freedom not to harm the body seems unconstitutional,” the High Court stated in its ruling.
They continued, “It is not limited to cases where surgery has taken place, but when observed by others, there is no doubt that they are viewed as a woman.
The female-identifying person’s lawyer responded with, “I am pleased to be liberated from the difficulties experienced while living with the gap between my social gender and legal gender. I am truly grateful.”
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