TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a law requiring transgender people to have their reproductive organs removed in order to officially change their gender is unconstitutional.
The decision by the top court’s 15-judge Grand Bench was its first on the constitutionality of Japan’s 2003 law requiring the removal of gonads for a state-recognized gender change, a practice long criticized by international rights and medical groups.
Currently, transgender people who want to have their biologically assigned gender changed on family registries and other official documents must be diagnosed as having Gender Identity Disorder and undergo an operation to remove their gonads.The decision comes at a time of heightened awareness of issues surrounding LGBTQ+ people in Japan.
The plaintiff, who is only identified as a resident in western Japan, originally filed the request in 2000, saying the surgery requirement forces a huge burden economically and physically and that it violates the constitution's equal rights protections. 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.
Some groups opposing more inclusivity for transgender people, especially to those changing from male to female, have submitted petitions Tuesday to the Supreme Court, asking it to keep the surgery requirement in place.
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