An Obstacle for Gender Identity Removed

Sapporo Family Court decided that a provision in Gender Identity Disorder Special Act was unconstitutional and invalid. While the provision requires gender identity to be compatible with how the body looks, the court found that the requirement would violate the Constitution that guarantees freedom of not suffering from harms on one’s body. The man who filed the petition can transfer his gender from female to male without medical treatment of injection of male hormone.

The petitioner, a transgender man in his 30s who is living in Sapporo, was raised as a girl and had been feeling uneasy on his gender. He could not go to his junior high school, because he did not like to wear skirt of his school uniform. He left his home in his age of 17 and tried to show himself as a man. After he was approved to change his first name to sound like a male in 2024, the man filed a petition to change his sex in his family register from woman to man in February.

 

Gender Identity Disorder Special Act sets five conditions for changing sex. They are: 18 years old or older, not married, no child under 18, compatibility between gender and body, and no reproductivity. To ensure the compatibility between gender and body, the law requires some medical treatments such as injection of hormone or removal of breast. The Supreme Court decided that provision of no productivity, which demanded surgery to change sex, was unconstitutional and void in 2023.

 

Although the petitioner in Sapporo cleared three of those conditions, he could not have treatment of hormone injection, because he had history of asthma. Considering recent technical progress in medical treatment, the court did not demand hormone injection for changing sex from female to male. On the possible problem in public spaces such as bath, the court acknowledged the fact that most patients of gender identity disorder would refrain from using public bath.

 

The decision of Sapporo Family Court cleared an obstacle for transgender people who wish to be legally recognized their gender. The Supreme Court’s decision in 2023 was a major progress. A person who hopes to change his or her sex does not need to remove the genitals or breast. However, the provision requiring body shape to be close to the sex the person recognize has been a great difficulty. It is expected that the court decision makes gender identification easier.

 

It is a concern that the legislative branch is still inactive to implement those court decisions. There is a fundamental concern among conservative lawmakers that making sex change easier would cause troubles in some places like public bath. Recent prime ministers have been too weak to make progress in gender issues, being afraid of backlash from the conservative powers. The difference between the Supreme Court and the Diet have been left behind for two years.

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