Trans News > English > 2003
Trans News in Japan - 2003
Japan Signals New Acceptance Of Transgendered
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
March 1, 2003
12:02 a.m. ET/+5GMT/-3PT
(Tokyo) Japan's Justice Minister has voiced
support for amendments to the family registration
law aimed at allowing the transgendered to
register their new gender.
"If it is lawmaker-initiated legislation
that takes into account the wishes of the
people concerned, (measures for a law amendment)
would be fast. The Justice Ministry would
like to help," Mayumi Moriyama told
a subpanel of the House of Representatives
Budget Committee.
Moriyama said that an informal study group
has been set up within her ministry.
"This is a very serious matter for certain
people, but I don't think that the public
as a whole has sufficient understanding,"
Moriyama said. "We need to take public
discussions and a wide range of matters into
consideration."
The transgendered have been lobbying for
revisions to the family registration law
that would allow them to change their registered
gender after sex-change operations.
Japan Times 2003/02/28
Moriyama supports transsexuals
Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama voiced support
Thursday for amendments to the family registration
law aimed at allowing people with gender
identity disorder to register their new gender.
"If it is lawmaker-initiated legislation
that takes into account the wishes of the
people concerned, (measures for a law amendment)
would be fast. The Justice Ministry would
like to help," she told a subpanel of
the House of Representatives Budget Committee.
Moriyama said that an informal study group
has been set up within the ministry.
"This is a very serious matter for certain
people, but I don't think that the public
as a whole has sufficient understanding,"
Moriyama said. "We need to take public
discussions and a wide range of matters into
consideration."
Transsexuals have been lobbying for revisions
to the family registration law that would
allow them to change their registered gender
after sex-change operations.
People with gender identity disorder have
a wish to live and be accepted as a member
of the opposite sex. They sometimes undergo
surgery and hormonal treatment to change
their gender.
The Japan Times: Feb. 28, 2003
(C) All rights reserved
Kyodo News 2003/02/27
Gov't backs amending registration law for
transsexuals
Thursday, February 27, 2003 at 17:30 JST
TOKYO - Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama
expressed support Thursday for lawmaker-initiated
legislation to amend the family registration
law to allow people with gender identity
disorder (GID) to register new genders.
"If it is lawmaker-initiated legislation
that takes into account the wishes of the
people concerned, measures for a law amendment
would be fast. The Justice Ministry would
like to help," she said at a subcommittee
of the House of Representatives Budget Committee.
(Kyodo News)
Daily Yomiuri 2003/02/22
Tottori to eliminate sex category on documents
Yomiuri Shimbun
The Tottori municipal government said Friday
it would stop asking residents to state their
gender on 35 types of official document out
of consideration for people with sexual identity
disorder, beginning in fiscal 2003.
Tottori Mayor Isao Takeuchi reportedly agreed
to the change after learning of the experience
of a local man who had undergone a sex-change
operation.
The man had complained that he was made to
feel uncomfortable when asked to show his
identification card, which records his sex
as male even though his physical appearance
is now that of a woman.
The government said it would consider eliminating
the gender category from 41 other documents,
such as application forms to use public facilities.
However, the category will remain on 110
other documents, including residency and
family registration certificates, which cannot
be processed without knowledge of the applicant's
gender.
The Koganei municipal government in Tokyo
and the Niiza city government in Saitama
Prefecture are considering following Tottori's
lead.
Transsexuals ask for family registration
law amendment
Keiji Hirano
Thursday, February 13, 2003 at 09:20 JST
TOKYO - A group of transsexuals made an appeal
to lawmakers on Wednesday to amend the family
registration law and permit gender changes
in registers following sex-change operations.
Members of the NAO, or No Assignment of Opposite
Gender, Association visited each lawmaker's
office at the Diet Members' Buildings, with
A, who was born a male but now lives as a
woman, saying people with gender identity
disorder (GID) "have suffered unbearable
pain physically and psychologically as well
as socially."
"Most of us with GID remain 'part-timers'
due to reluctance to reveal congenital, or
registered, genders. We lead our lives as
people of the opposite sex not because we
like to do so but because we feel pain if
we are forced to live under our congenital
gender," she told the Diet members.
A mother of a 19-year-old who was born a
female but is now living as a male, said,
"I have concerns over the future of
my child under the current legal system.
It is painful that I, as a parent, cannot
do anything for him."
In response to their appeals, Yoshihide Suga,
a House of Representatives member from the
ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said, "I
understand the hard situations of those with
GID by seeing them face-to-face. I will study
the issue further."
Ko Tanaka, a nonpartisan lower house member,
said, "I believe we lawmakers need to
tackle the problems of people with GID beyond
partisan interests."
"I promise to contribute my might to
them so that the difficulties in their lives
will be wiped away," Tanaka said.
In 2001, six people with GID who had sex-change
operations filed civil suits seeking to have
their new genders recorded in their family
registers, but three out of the six have
already had their requests rejected.
Masae Torai, one of the six plaintiffs and
a member of the NAO Association, said, "All
lawmakers we met with had a sympathetic ear
for us. We will continue to make appeals
to them in an effort to improve our living
conditions."
The Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology
introduced guidelines for sex-change operations
in May 1997, paving the way to legitimate
sex transformation procedures, although such
operations are not covered by health insurance.
Experts estimate there are between 7,000
and 70,000 people with GID in Japan. (Kyodo
News)
Transsexuals, supporters work for public
understanding
Keiji Hirano
Saturday, February 1, 2003 at 10:00 JST
TOKYO - Transsexuals and their supporters
have established a joint association to gain
public understanding of those with gender
identity disorder (GID) and put pressure
on the government to allow gender changes
to be registered in official documents.
NAO, which stands for No Assignment of Opposite
Sex, takes its name from a character in a
popular TV drama focusing on a junior high
school student with GID.
The association has set up a web site providing
information about transsexuals and the discrimination
they suffer.
It has also tied up with lawmakers from the
governing and opposition parties to tackle
the challenges transsexuals face, said Masae
Torai, a member of the association.
Torai had a sex-change operation going from
female to male in the United States in the
late 1980s. He said having changes of gender
officially recorded in family registers is
one of the group's goals.
Six people, including Torai, who have undergone
sex-change operations, filed civil suits
in 2001 seeking to have their new sex recorded
in their family registers. But three out
of the six have had their requests rejected.
"I believe many other transsexuals in
Japan are now struggling to gain legal approval
to have their gender change listed in their
family register, although I have not yet
had any contact with them," said Torai,
a freelance writer in Tokyo.
Although the courts have turned down several
requests, Torai said, "I have been employed
as a male part-time lecturer at state-run
Mie University, and another state-run university
also plans to accept me as a male lecturer."
Because their new gender goes unrecorded
in official documents, many transsexuals
work as part-timers as they do not want to
submit their residence certificates to employers,
Torai said. Also, they cannot enjoy the social
benefits given to ordinary married couples,
he added.
"As an association, I hope we will be
able to push lawmakers and administrative
bodies to allow us to register gender changes
on official documents, such as family registers
and medical records," said A, another
NAO member who leads life as a woman.
Satoru Ienishi, a House of Representatives
member from Japan's largest opposition party,
the Democratic Party of Japan, said, "The
government should allow people to alter their
registered genders if they are medically
identified as GID and undergo a sex-change
operation.
"As a lawmaker, I intend to ask the
Justice Ministry and others where they stand
on this issue and how they plan to tackle
it," added Ienishi, who led a group
of plaintiffs in a lawsuit stemming from
HIV cases contracted via tainted blood products.
Transsexuals are those with a wish to live
and be accepted as a member of the opposite
sex, often accompanied by a feeling of discomfort
with their bodies and a desire to undergo
surgery and hormonal treatment to change
their gender.
The Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology
introduced guidelines for sex-change operations
in May 1997, recommending that patients receive
psychiatric counseling and hormone therapy
before undergoing the procedure.
Experts estimate there are between 7,000
and 70,000 people with GID in Japan.
The association is planning to hand out light
blue ribbons bearing the NAO logo and ask
people to wear them as a show of understanding
of transsexuals.
Ryoko Wakatake, a supporting member of the
group, said, "I want people to wear
the ribbon to show that they stand by those
with GID."
Wakatake, who is a city assembly member of
Koganei in western Tokyo, worked for the
adoption of a written opinion by the assembly
last September seeking official recognition
of gender change. She added, "The color
of the ribbon symbolizes our hope that people
with GID will be able to live under a blue
sky."
The written opinion, which the Koganei assembly
unanimously adopted, was submitted to Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi as well as the
public management and home affairs minister.
"As long as transsexuals face unfairness,
they feel gloomy even under clear and sunny
skies," Wakatake said. (Kyodo News)
Japan: Court Throws Out Transsexual's Demand
To Alter Gender In Register
Friday 24 January, 2003 16:16
The Tokyo Family Court has thrown out a request
filed by a transsexual in 2001 to allow him
to alter his gender in the country's family
register.
The man, in his 40s, was born a woman, but
had a sex-change operation to become a man
at Saitama Medical School, the first medical
facility in Japan to offer the procedure.
The court said that the man was "biologically
female at the time of birth" and that
therefore the original records could not
be changed.
This is the third case in which a court has
not allowed transsexuals to change genders
in family registers, following two cases
in August and December last year.
Kyodo News 2003/01/13
Court rejects transsexual's demand to alter
gender in register
Monday, January 13, 2003 at 09:30 JST
TOKYO - The Tokyo Family Court has rejected
a request filed by a transsexual in 2001
to allow him to alter his gender in his family
register, sources close to the plaintiff
said Sunday.
The plaintiff in his 40s was born a woman
but suffered from sexual identity disorder
and underwent a sex-change operation at Saitama
Medical School, the first medical facility
in Japan to offer the procedure.
This is the third case in which a court has
not allowed such individuals to change genders
in family registers, following two cases
in August and December last year.
"Is asking for a special law to be enacted
the only way?" the plaintiff said after
the court handed down the ruling without
directly hearing from him.
The Census Registration Law stipulates records
can be corrected when any contradictions
are discovered. The court said it interpreted
"contradictions" as "in cases
where the records in the register do not
match the truth in the beginning."
In this case, the plaintiff "was biologically
female at the time of birth," and therefore
the original records cannot be considered
a "contradiction," the court ruled.
Sex-change operations have long been a taboo
in Japan, but the medical field began conducting
authorized operations in 1998. Those who
underwent the operations, however, often
experience trouble and inconveniences in
cases such as marriage and employment because
family registers fail to reflect their new
genders.
Five other transsexuals had also filed similar
suits at other family courts in the Kanto
and Tohoku regions in eastern and northeastern
Japan at the same time as the plaintiff in
2001. (Kyodo News)