T* Meet Feminists in Japan

Transgendered and transsexual people met with feminists in Japan this past weekend to discuss possible cooperation based on their common experiences of gender role oppression.

According to a Kyodo News Service report, there were 136 people in attendance.

The meeting took place soon after the first stage of Japan's first legal sex reassignment surgery, and that transman patient provided a written statement demanding recognition of post-surgical sex on official registration documents.

The main panel discussion featured four speakers, a feminist activist, a lesbian "queer theorist," a transgender who presented as masculine, and a male feminist professor of gender studies.

There was general agreement that the groups could provide mutual support in breaking down sex role stereotypes and social distinctions.

A transgender support group had developed a glossary and other materials to assist the non-trans participants in learning about differences among cross-dressers, transgenders, and transsexuals, as well as about difficulties they face in their daily lives.

Copyright ｩ1998 Planet Out Corporation

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The Trans-Net Japan (TS to TG wo Sasaeru Hitobito no Kai) (in Japanese)
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(PlanetOut October 20, 1998)
http://www.planetout.com/pno/news/article.html?1998/10/20/4
Transgender News Briefs NewsPlanet Staff Tuesday, October 20, 1998 / 03:05 PM

Japan's 1st T* Goes Public

SUMMARY: British MP praises transsexual of "The Street" ... 1st Japanese transsexual speaks out ... missing transsexual's recovered remains interred...

After years of waiting, Keiichi Nakahara last week underwent the first stage of surgical reassignment from female to male, and he's now given a lengthy interview to the "Weekly Asahi" magazine to call for changes in the nation's official registry.

The government's family registration system describes individuals by their gender as perceived at birth.

Throughout her adult life, the 30-year-old woman worked jobs -- about 20 of them, currently carpenter -- that did not qualify for social insurance programs, because she did not want to show identification that clashed with her male presentation.

Nakahara also described the personal experience of always feeling like a male, from the shock of seeing a little boy's genitals at age 3, to the sense of being "sentenced to death" on menarche, to having always fallen in love with women but never having felt right about her body in sexual relations with them.

Nakahara was diagnosed with gender identity disorder in mid-1992, but Japanese physicians did not consider sex reassignment surgery to be ethical before 1996, and didn't complete development of guidelines for performing the surgery until this year.

Meanwhile, feminists and other supporters of transgender rights have announced they will be meeting with transgenders in Tokyo October 26 to examine how their shared experiences of sex role oppression can help them to support each other in finding authenticity.

Copyright ｩ1998 Planet Out Corporation

Related site:

The Trans-Net Japan (TS to TG wo Sasaeru Hitobito no Kai) (in Japanese)
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External sites are not endorsed by us.

(The Japan Times, Saturday, October 24, 1998)

Patient wants sex changed in registry

A 30-year-old woman who underwent the first part of a sex-change operation last Friday at Saitama Medical College said she wants her gender change to be officially recognized in her family registry, according to a weekly magazine published Tuesday.

In an article in the Weekly Asahi, the woman, who is using the male pseudonym Keiichi Nakahara, criticized the family registration system, which requires clarification of a person's sex, in light of the number of people with a gender identity disorder who wish to live like members of the opposite sex.

Nakahara said she wants to live in a society where those who are afflicted are not discriminated against due to the incompatibility between their physical appearance and their sex as registered in documents.

All Japanese citizens are required by law to be listed in a family registration document, which is part of a government-controlled system.

In an eight-hour interview with the magazine, Nakahara, who works as a carpenter in northeastern Japan, said she has felt uncomfortable with her sex for more than 20 years.

Nakahara said she first felt discomfort when she was only about 3 years old. "I was greatly shocked to see a boy who stripped at a nursery school pool, because I didn't have the genital organs he had," she said.

When she was a second-year high school student, about 16 or 17, she had her first menstrual period.

"I felt as if I had been sentenced to death," she said, adding that her dream of living like a man was destroyed then.

Graduating from high school, she got a job at a gas station hoping to work as a maintenance man.

However, she quit on the first day after being told to work in the general affairs section and wear a female uniform.

Since then, she has had more than 20 different jobs, including printer operator, guard, plumber, electrical engineer and bartender in a gay bar.

Nakahara has been forced to choose jobs that do not guarantee social insurance so she does not have to submit a copy of her family registry, which reveals her sex. Nakahara said she has always fallen in love with women.

"I felt great discomfort with my body when I slept with old girlfriend," she said, adding that she decided to have a sex change after such uncomfortable experiences.

She consulted a doctor at Saitama Medical College in Kawagoe in July 1992, and in the winter of that year she was diagnosed as having gender identity disorder.

In July 1996, the college's ethics committee accepted a sex-change operation as proper medical treatment for Nakahara, and the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology released guidelines in May allowing sex changes under certain conditions for the first time.

Following this move, the college committee approved an operation for Nakahara in May, on condition that complete psychological support measures be provided afterward.

There have been no such operations in Japan since 1969, when a gynecologist who had conducted sex-change operations on three male prostitutes was convicted of violating the country's former Eugenic Protection Law.

Since then, sex-change operations have been considered taboo in Japan, according to doctors.

Those who have wanted such operations have either had them performed secretly or have gone to countries where they are legal. Nakahara said she will apply to have her new sex entered in her family registry after the operation is completed.

"As a transsexual, I've come to think about my life more seriously," she said.

According to an estimate by Saitama Medical College, up to 7,000 people in Japan are transsexuals.

Meeting to cooperate

A symposium to promote cooperation between feminists and those who have a psychological urge to live and be accepted as a member of the opposite sex will be held Sunday in Tokyo, according to organizers.

The meeting, organized by supporters of sex changes, will include a panel discussion with feminist activists and transsexuals, the group members said.

Some feminists are concerned that people who are not satisfied with their gender are often pressured into ignoring their true feelings and assimilating by adopting traditional male and female roles.

Panel participants will discuss ways for feminists and transsexuals to work together to support each other's efforts to become their "real selves."

A report on Japan's first legal sex-change operation, which started at Saitama Medical College last Friday, will also be presented at the symposium.

Saitama Medical College estimates that some up to 7,000 people in Japan want to live as members of the opposite sex.

The symposium will start at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Tokyo Metropolitan Nanbu Rosei Kaikan hall next to Shinagawa Ward Office.

Copyright ｩ1998 The Japan Times

(The Japan Times Saturday, October 17, 1998, 5th (Latest) Edition)

Nation's first legal sex change begins

(Photo) DR. TAKAO HARASHINA heads to the operating room at Saitama Medical College to perform the nation's first sex-change operation Friday.
(KYODO PHOTO)

Kawagoe, Saitama Pref. (Kyodo) Saitama Medical College started Japan's first legal sex-change operation Friday on a woman at the college's general medical center, college officials said.

A special team of roughly 10 doctors at the college medical center in Kawagoe completed the first series of operations on the 30-year-old female patient from the Tohoku region shortly after 3 p.m., the officials said.

As expected, Friday's operation -- removal of her breasts, uterus and ovaries -- took roughly six hours, they said.

In the second operation, scheduled to be conducted about six months later, doctors will construct a simulated male genital organ for the patient, who has a gender-identity disorder and was identified by the male alias Keiichi Nakahara.

Although sex-change operations have been common in some other countries, it is the first authorized in Japan. When complete, it will leave legal issues unresolved, such as the gender listed in the family registry, which cannot be changed, according to experts.

In a statement released ahead of the operation, Nakahara said she has a strong realization that she can finally get her real body back, and that she was overwhelmed with emotion.

She called the day's surgery a "gender redesignation" operation.

The patient also called on parties concerned to continue to take steps to improve the legal, educational and social environment surrounding those in a similar situation.

Since childhood, the patient had problems accepting her female body and had been living the life of a man for nearly 10 years, taking jobs as a construction worker while receiving regular doses of male hormones.

According to hospital officials, the woman was in good health going into the operation, which will cost an estimated 4.5 million yen and will not be covered by health insurance.

Of the total cost, the college will pay 500,000 yen and the patient will pay the remaining 4 million yen.

In May, the college's ethics committee approved the sex change operation for the woman on condition that complete mental support measures be provided afterward.

The college had set up a "gender clinic committee" consisting of experts from such fields as psychiatry, gynecology and plastic surgery to handle the case, but reached the conclusion that the problem could not be solved through therapy or hormone injections.

The Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology said last year that sex-change operations should be permitted under certain conditions.

Copyright ｩ1998 The Japan Times

(The Japan Times, Saturday, October 17, 1998, 1st Edition)

Woman undergoes nation's first legal sex change surgery

DR. TAKAO HARASHINA and his team of surgeons head Friday to the operating room at Saitama Medical College to perform the nation's first sex-change operation (KYODO PHOTO)

URAWA, Saitama Pref. (Kyodo) Saitama Medical College began performing Japan's first sex change operation Friday on a woman at the college's general medical center, college officials said.

A special team of roughly 10 doctors at the college medical center in Kawagoe started the first of a series of operations on the 30-year-old female patient from the Tohoku region shortly after 9 a.m., the officials said.

According to the doctors, the first operation -- removal of her breasts, uterus and ovaries -- will take six to eight hours, they said.

In the second operation, which is scheduled to be conducted about six months later, doctors will construct a simulated male genital organ for the patient, who has a gender-identity disorder and was identified by the male alias Keiichi Nakahara.

In a statement released ahead of the operation, Nakahara said she has a strong realization that she can finally get her real body back, and that she was overwhelmed with emotion.

She called the day's surgery a "gender redesignation" operation.

The patient also called on parties concerned to continue to take steps to improve the legal, educational and social environment surrounding those in a similar situation.

Since childhood, the patient had problems accepting her female body and had been living the life of a man for nearly 10 years, taking jobs as a construction worker while receiving regular doses of male hormones.

According to hospital officials, the woman was in good health going into the operation, which will cost an estimated 5 million yen and will not be covered by health insurance.

In May, the college's ethics committee approved the sex change operation for the woman on condition that complete mental support measures be provided afterward.

The college had set up a "gender clinic committee" consisting of experts from such fields as psychiatry, gynecology and plastic surgery to handle the case, but reached the conclusion that the problem could not be solved through therapy or hormone injections.

The Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology said last year that sex- change operations should be permitted under certain conditions.

Some 2,200 to 7,000 people in Japan want to live as a member of the opposite sex, according to an estimate by Saitama Medical College.

Such operations have long been considered taboo in Japan.

A Tokyo gynecologist who performed sex-change operations on three men in February 1969 was found guilty of violating the Eugenic Protection Law.

Those seeking a sex change thus had to go abroad to have the operation performed. Legal and administrative hurdles still exist, such as the fact that under current law, a person who has undergone a sex-change operation is not allowed to reflect the sex change on the census registration, in effect leading to problems in securing work and getting married.

Copyright ｩ1998 The Japan Times

(The Japan Times, Thursday, October 15, 1998, page3)

Sex change marks first legal operation

URAWA, Saitama Pref. (Kyodo)

Saitama Medical College will perform the nation's first legally approved sex-change operation Friday on a Japanese woman at the college's general medical center, college officials said Wednesday.

A special team of doctors at the college, will perform the operation in two stages on a 30-year-old woman from northeastern Japan.

The first stage, to be carried out Friday at 9 a.m., will be mainly to remove the uterus and ovaries, which doctors believe will take six to eight hours.

The woman was admitted to the hospital Wednesday to prepare for the operation, college officials said.

The sex-change operation was originally scheduled for Sept. 11, but was delayed because of allegations that the college conducted a similar operation in 1993 without the permission of the facility's ethics committee.

An in-house investigation later found the 1993 operation, in which a uterus and ovaries were also removed, was treatment for -- not sex-change surgery.

In May, the college's ethics committee gave approval for the 30-year-old woman with transsexualism, or gender-identity disorder, to undergo a sex change on condition that complete mental counseling be provided afterward.

The Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology said last year that sex-change operations should be permitted under certain conditions, including a requirement that the patient undergo psycho-analysis and hormone therapy following the procedure.

Some 2,200 to 7,000 people in Japan want to live as a member of the opposite sex, according to one estimate.

copyright ｩ1998 The Japan Times

(The Daily Yomiuri, October 17, 1998)

Nation's 1st sex change carried out

Yomiuri Shimbun

KAWAGOE -- Saitama Medical College on Friday conducted the nation's first sex-change operation, on a woman in her 30s, at its general medical center here, a college official said.

The operation, a medical procedure that has long been regarded as taboo in Japan, was conducted after the college's ethics committee approved it as a "legitimate treatment" in May.

The woman, who the officials said is from the Tohoku region, had been receiving male sex hormones and counseling after doctors diagnosed that she was suffering from gender-identity disorder.

Friday's operation, in which the woman's breasts, uterus and ovaries were removed, began at 9:10 a.m. and ended at 3:10 p.m.. It was conducted by a 10-member team, including Prof. Katsuyuki Kinoshita, a gynecologist, and Prof. Takao Harashina, a plastic surgeon.

The patient will be hospitalized for about 10 days. After a six-month observation period, she is scheduled to undergo a second operation in which doctors will fashion an artificial penis, the official said.

The patient reportedly first visited Harashina in July 1992, after learning that the professor had successfully constructed an artificial penis for a newly married man who had been injured in a traffic accident.

In a statement for media released before the operation, she said: "Now I feel strongly that I will be able to recover my original body at last.

There are many people who have similar (gender-identity disorder) problems.

What I most wish for is that to live with hope for the future, (our society will become one in which) we will exist together with mutual respect for each individual and personality."

According to a U.S. study, one adult male in every 24,000 to 37,000 suffers from gender-identity disorder, while the figure for U.S. women is one in every 103,000 to 150,000.

If those estimates are applied to this country, several thousand Japanese probably feel trapped in the wrong body.

Although the operation paves the way for those who suffer from the disorder to change their physical appearance, more serious problems remain.

Many sufferers from the disorder face prejudice and misunderstanding, and are often bullied at schools or forced to quit their jobs.

The largest concern involved in changing sex lies with the Family Registration Law, which does not allow changes to be recorded in family registers. In the past, some people have been allowed to change their registered sex due to mistakes made when their sex was entered in the register at the time of their birth.

Those who change their sex will have to cope with difficulties in every aspect of daily life--not only in obtaining resident's cards, passports and driver's licenses, but also in receiving medical treatment, signing property contracts and voting.

copyright ｩ1998 Yomiuri Shimbun

(Asahi Evening News, October 16, 1998)

1st approved sex change op begins

Asahi Shimbun

URAWA--The nation's first approved sex-change operation began this morning at Saitama Medical College in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, officials said.

The operation, which involved a woman in her 30s suffering from gender identity disorder, is being conducted with the approval of a university ethics committee, the officials said.

The woman was wheeled into the operating room at 9 a.m. and the operation was expected to take five to seven hours.

"I feel as if I can finally awaken from a long nightmare," officials quoted the woman as saying before entering the room.

The operation involves removing the woman's ovary and uterus, and extending her urethra, the officials said.

She had already undergone hormonal treatment, but had pushed for the operation since first visiting the medical center at the college six years ago.

Surgery to construct a penis, using grafts of skin from the patient's own body, will be conducted in about six months to complete the change, they said.

Gender identity disorder occurs when a person recognizes his or her biological gender but feels trapped by it, and psychologically considers himself or herself to be of the other gender.

The disorder is recognized in the United States and Europe and in some Asian countries where treatment is commonly practiced. In Japan, debate over such treatment has been considered taboo since a Tokyo surgeon was convicted on charges of performing surgery on three men in 1969 in violation of the Eugenic Protection Law, which bans removing reproductive functions without appropriate reason.

In July 1996, the medical school's ethics committee deemed the treatment "appropriate" and in May 1997 the Japan Psychiatry and Neurology Society compiled a conditional treatment guideline for gender identity disorder cases.

The medical school approved the operation in May of this year.

"It is meaningful that a sex change operation was conducted under the society's guideline and approval of the medical school," said Jiro Suzuki, director for the Psychiatry and Neurology Society.

Suzuki added, however, that it was "necessary to consider what kind of care is needed for the patient's reentering into society."

Copyright ｩ1998 Asahi Shimbun

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