Trans News > English > 1997
Trans News in Japan - 1997
The Japan Times Jul. 31 Jun. 21 May 29
The Japan Times (Thursday, July 31, 1997, page2)
URAWA, Saitama Pref. (Kyodo) The Saitama Medical School is expected to perform the nation's first legally
approved sex-change operations on two women as early as this
fall., doctors said Wednesday.
A special team of doctors at the school has decided to ask the
school's ethics committee to approve the surgery, the doctors
said, adding that approval is expected in September.
The team, formed by doctors specializing in psycho-surgery,
plastic surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, and urinary organs,
gives treatment to those who feel as sense of incongruity with
their gender and want to change, the doctors said.
The two women have already undergone psychoanalysis and have been
receiving male hormones for some time, the doctors said, adding
that the women are at this point living their lives as men.
In 1995, Takao Harashina, a professor of plastic surgery of the
school, called on the ethics committee to approve sex-change
surgery on the two women.
The request was rejected in July 1996, with the committee saying
the operations would be correct but that not all the necessary
conditions have been met.
Last May, the Japanese Society of
Psychiatry and Neurology said a
sex-change operation should be permitted on condition that a
patient is at least 20 years old, has lived as a different sex
for one year or more, and will undergo psychoanalysis and hormone
therapy.
According to the school, some 2,000 to 7,000 people are suffering
from a desire to live and be accepted as a member of the opposite
sex and need to undertake some treatment in Japan.
copyright ｩ1997 The Japan Times
The Japan Times (Saturday, June 21, 1997, page3)
By KEIJI HIRANO Kyodo News
In her early childhood, Masae Torai, a 33-year-old freelance
writer from Tokyo, never doubted that she would turn into a boy
some day.
"I thought a male genital organ would sprout when I became
an adult," she says.
However, her desire to be a man was dealt a major blow in the
fifth grade when she learned the mechanism of menstruation.
"I felt like I was locked in the wrong body, and I didn't
want the boys or girls around me to see my wrong body,"
Torai says.
She was uncomfortable wearing swimming suits for physical
education classes limited to female students, and she refused to
bathe with others when on school excursions.
"Imagine a man waking up one morning to find his breasts
swollen and his genital organ gone.
I had that feeling, chronically," Torai says.
In a bid to replace her body, Torai headed off to the United
States four days after graduating from college to undergo
"sex reassignment surgery," popularly known as a
sex-change operation.
The removal of her breasts in the first operation in 1987 was
"just like the excision of a malignant tumor."
After undergoing three operations in two years in New York and
San Francisco, her genital organs as well as breasts were gone,
and Torai had gained a male genital organ, formed by
transplanting flesh from other parts of her body.
At last, Torai physically became a man, the body and gender
identification finally harmonized.
People like Torai are known as transsexuals, with the
World Health Organization defining
transsexualism, or "gender identity disorder," as
"a desire to live and be accepted as a member of the
opposite sex, usually accompanied by a sense of discomfort with,
or inappropriateness of, one's anatomic sex, and a wish to have
surgery and hormonal treatment to make one's body as congruent as
possible wit h one's preferred sex."
According to some medical studies, the incidence of
transsexualism is estimated at about one case per 50,000- 100,000
people, suggesting that there may be upward of 2,000 transsexuals
in Japan.
Torai was compelled to go to the U.S., because such operations
have not been conducted openly in Japan since 1969, when a
gynecologist, who had conducted sex-change operations for three
male prostitutes, was convicted of violating the country's
Eugenic Protection Law.
The law says no one may conduct operations that make reproduction
impossible "without reason."
Since then, sex-change operations have been considered taboo in
Japan, doctors say, and those who are unable to live with their
given gender have had operations in secret or have gone abroad to
countries where such operations are legal.
However, a recent decision by the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology has given transsexuals hope that they may not have
to depend on secret operations or overseas surgery much longer.
A special committee of the academic organization came out with
guidelines at the end of May approving for the first time
sex-change operations as a way of medically treating gender
identity disorder.
The guidelines say patients should receive psychiatric counseling
and hormone therapy before undergoing the operation.
The patients must be more than 20 years old and are required to
live as a member of the desired gender for a certain period of
time before the operation, the guidelines say.
In addition, doctors should obtain written consent from their
patients before the operation, as the surgery will have a major
impact on their lives, such as removing reproductive ability.
The first open sex-change operation may be conducted at Saitama Medical School
within a year, as its doctors have been successful in
re-generating genital organs injured in accidents.
According to an official at the Health and Welfare
Ministry, "Doctors will not be
convicted as long as they conduct sex-change operations according
to these guidelines."
Meanwhile, one major problem relating to transsexuals remains
unsolved.
After completing the series of operations, Torai worked part-time
at a factory for five years.
Given a chance to be a full-time worker, Torai declined.
"I had to submit to my employer a resident's certificate, in
which I am still registered as a woman, to gain full-time
status," Torai said.
"They would know I had been a woman if I chose to be a
regular employee."
Torai sought a legal change of sex in 1994 but withdrew the suit,
saying, "It was clear that the court would reject the
proposal, as transsexualism was not recognized as a serious
problem at that time.
I did not want to leave the wrong precedent by being
rejected."
Other transsexuals have shared similar experiences and many have
financial problems because they only feel able to work part-time,
Torai says.
According to Yuko Higashi, a student at Ochanomizu University
majoring in sexology, many countries, including some European
nations and South Korea, permit transsexuals to legally change
their sex after the operations.
"Transsexuals will face various difficulties if they don't
have legal approval of their gender changes," Higashi said.
Torai has a girlfriend now, but cannot marry her under the
current legal system.
"We could live together as a common-law husband and wife,
but it would be impossible for us to enjoy the social benefits
given to ordinary couples," Torai said.
"Sexual minorities, such myself, who are transsexuals or
homosexuals, may have to establish our own facilities to secure
living places in our old age, as we will not be accepted at
old-people's homes for couples if our existence is not recognized
legally," Torai said.
copyright ｩ1997 The Japan Times
(The Japan Times, Thursday, May 29, 1997, page 2)
The effective outlawing of sex change
operations in Japan was scrapped Wednesday when the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology gave final authorization to such operations for
people suffering from sexual disorientation.
The Health and Welfare Ministry had said it would consider sex change operations
for people suffering from gender identity disorders as
"proper medical treatment" if the society came up with
guidelines and the operations satisfied those descriptions.
In guidelines the society adopted the same day, the operation can
be conducted if all other treatment, including hormone
injections, have failed to end the patient's distress.
After a gynecologist who conducted a male-to-female sex change
was found guilty in 1969 of violating the Eugenic Protection Act,
sex change operations were effectively outlawed in Japan.
copyright ｩ1997 The Japan Times