Reuters Mar. 8
Tokyo Weekly Jan. 15
(The Japan Times, March 9, 2000)
Court lifts ban on transsexual going back
to school
TOKUSHIMA (Kyodo) The Tokushima District
Court has overturned a decision by the prefectural
education board to bar a transsexual man
in his 30s from re-enrolling in high school,
court officials said Wednesday.
Presiding Judge Hisashi Matsumoto said in
the ruling, "It is a fact that the man
has already graduated from junior high school
and he has the right to file an application
for admission to high school."
Takahisa Aoki, head of the education board
said, "We deeply regret the court's
decision but we have no recourse but to follow
it."
The man told the court he transformed himself
into a woman "physically and mentally"
after graduating from junior high school
in 1987.
He also said he has been diagnosed by a hospital
as being "very close to being a woman
biologically."
The educational board had refused to accept
his application to take entrance exams to
local high schools on the grounds that "other
students would be deprived of admission opportunities
if we readmit a high school graduate."
The man said after the ruling, "I want
to start my life over as a female high school
student."
The Japan Times: Mar. 9, 2000
(C) All rights reserved
(Reuters,
March 8, 2000)
Transsexual Gets Second
Shot at School
Updated 9:36 AM ET March 8, 2000
TOKYO (Reuters) - A
male-turned-female transsexual will get a second shot at high
school after a Japanese district court Wednesday overturned an
education board decision to bar the 30-year-old graduate from
re-enrolling as a woman.
The woman told the court she had transformed herself into a
female "physically and mentally" after graduating from
high school in 1987 and had been diagnosed by a hospital as
"very close to being a woman biologically," Kyodo
news agency said.
The education board in Tokushima prefecture, southern Japan, had
rejected the transsexual's application on the grounds that she
had graduated once already and readmitting her would deprive
other students of a chance to attend the school, Kyodo said.
"I want to start my life over as a female high school
student," the transsexual was quoted as saying after the
ruling was handed down.
Copyright 2000 Reuters
(The Japan Times, March 3, 2000)
Heavy and light in
minority fiction
By JANET
ASHBY
The first Akutagawa Prizes of the year 2000 have been awarded to
two works about minority life in Japan. "Kage no
Sumika" by Gengetsu, a second-generation Korean-Japanese,
deals with life in Osaka's Korean community, while "Natsu no
Yakusoku" by Fujino Chiya sketches the daily life of a group
of young urban professionals in Tokyo who happen to be gay.
The two novellas can be found in the March issue of Bungei
Shunju, along with comments by the jury which selected them. The
consensus of the judges seemed to be that both authors had shown
considerable improvement and had promise for the future, but that
Gengetsu's novella was a little too heavy while Fujino's was a
little too light. In particular Ishihara Shintaro complained of a
lack of freshness in young authors in Japan today. The flood of
information inundating us now serves to dull the senses of
readers and make authors careless in picking out exactly the
right theme. On the other hand, Kono Taeko singled out the recent
tendency to entitle literary works in English or katakana (such
as three other candidates for the most recent Akutagawa Prize --
"Search Engine System Crash," "Tiny, Tiny"
and "Muse"). She thinks such works tend to be written
off the top of one's head (literally, with "insufficient
fermentation") and to show a weak creative impulse and lack
of passion.
I was particularly interested in Fujino, since she seemed an
unlikely Akutagawa winner. Now 38 years old, she won the Kaien
New Writer Award in 1995 and the Noma New Writer Award in 1998. A
transsexual herself, she told the Asahi Shimbun (Jan. 31) that
she doesn't want to deal with gay issues as a weighty social
problem but simply to write about people who are somewhat out of
step with society. In an interview with the writer Kuroi Senji in
Bungakukai (March), Fujino notes as well that everyone has some
sense of not fitting into the world around them. She does not
intend her stories to be treatises on social prejudice or the
problems of gay life.
She tells Kuroi that although she had long been interested in
writing she didn't actually embark on a literary career until she
was fired from her job as an editor at a manga magazine. The
trouble began when she started living and dressing as a woman a
few years after being hired. Her immediate boss didn't object as
long as she did her job but higherups became involved and
eventually fired her as a corrupting moral influence!
Kuroi also ran into problems with the company where he was
working while writing on the side. At first he was just treated
as an odd character, but after a few years his boss told him the
company had no use for employees who were not company men 24
hours a day.
When Kuroi brings up the criticism that "Natsu no
Yakusoku" is lacking in conflict and tension, Fujino
responds that in daily life as well much is left unspoken. She
felt no need to explicitly write about what is implicitly
understood.
I have to admit that I also found "Natsu no Yakusoku"
to be lacking in dramatic tension, although written with a light
and skillful touch. The story centers on the lives of a group of
friends in their 20s: the gay couple Maruo and Hikaru; Tamayo, a
transsexual working in a family beauty parlor; the novelist
Kiku-chan and her friend Nozomi, an OL.
Maruo is a somewhat overweight, easygoing company man who enjoys
his food and drink while Hikaru is a freelance editor. They seem
to be a longstanding couple, although they are still living in
separate apartments. It is early summer and daily life proceeds
normally. Maruo works late, goes out drinking with coworkers, and
stops off at the convenience store on his way home. Tamayo,
Nozomi and Kiku-chan spend an evening drinking and chatting in
Kiku-chan's apartment. On a Sunday Maruo and Hikaru go to see an
Indian movie, have dinner in a restaurant and go window shopping.
Of course there are scattered incidents of prejudice. One evening
when Maruo and Hikaru are walking home holding hands, they are
jeered at by a group of junior high school boys pushing past them
on their way to the station. Hikaru gets angry but Maruo laughs
it off and cajoles Hikaru out of his bad humor.
In a nice scene, Maruo goes on a Saturday to Tamayo's place for a
haircut and they take a bento to a nearby park. Tamayo looks
rather wistfully at the family with children nearby and tells
Maruo how the unconditional love of her dog Apollon helps her
overcome bad feelings about everyday slights she encounters.
In this way life goes on while Tamayo tries to get everyone to
agree to go away together to the country in August, the
"yakusoku" of the title. I kept waiting for something
to happen, a lover's quarrel even, but nothing did until the
rather contrived ending when Tamayo accidentally gets hit by a
pot flying from the window of a fighting married couple. Since
she's in the hospital with a broken jaw, the friends probably
won't be able to go away together this year.
I can't help thinking this story would be dismissed as too slight
if the characters were heterosexual, but one can also see it as
reflecting a wider search for community within the dislocations
of contemporary life. Fujino herself said at the Akutagawa Prize
ceremony that she was especially happy to receive the award for a
story about people helping and supporting each other, and she
thanked the friends and editors who had made her own success
possible.
Janet Ashby, a freelance writer and translator, came to Japan in
1975. She has a special interest in Japanese pop culture.
The Japan Times: Mar. 3, 2000
(C) All rights reserved
(The Tokyo-Weekly, Jan. 15, 2000)
Transgender writer wins
prestigious Akutagawa Award
http://www.tokyo-weekly.ne.jp/2000/CUL/CUL20000115-1.shtml
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Winners of this year's prominent literary awards -- the Akutagawa
Award and Naoki Award -- were announced after a selection
committee meeting in Tsukiji, Tokyo, on Jan. 14.
Chiya Fujino's "Natsu no Yakusoku" and 34-year-old
Gengetsu's "Kage no Sumika," were selected as
recipients of the 122nd Akutagawa Literary Award, the most
prestigious Japanese prize in belles-lettres.
(snip)
The 37-year-old Fujino is an up-and-coming male writer who
elected to live as a woman after he suffered from gender identity
disorder.
(snip)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1997-2000 The Chunichi Shimbun.
No reproduction or republication without written
permission.