Japan's LGBTQ policy

Partial victory in Japan for transgender rights  

Japan's Supreme Court has ruled that requiring transgender people to undergo sterilization to change their legal gender is unconstitutional. This is reported by Kyodo News. This means that today's legislation needs to be revised. 

 

However, the court failed to reach a decision on another requirement regarding surgery, which is that transgender people must have genitalia similar to those of the gender they wish to be registered as.  

That part will be dealt with by another court, something that is seen as a setback for the LGBTQ movement.  

 

Other requirements set today are that a person who wants to change their legal gender must be unmarried, childless and have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. 

 

****************************

Activists in Japan rejoice: "Changes the lives of many"  

The LGBTQ movement in Japan welcomes the announcement from the Supreme Court that sterilization requirements for legal sex change are against the constitution. The New York Times reports.  

 

According to Yuichi Kamiya, general secretary of the LGBT rights organization J-ALL, the decision will "change the lives of many trans people". 

 

Human Rights Watch writes in a statement that the Japanese Supreme Court's decision is a big step for the right to health, privacy and bodily autonomy for transgender people in Japan. According to the organization, the decision is also in line with an increased understanding regionally and globally that the law in trans issues needs to be separated from medical interventions.