Japan's Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a law requiring transgender people to undergo sterilization surgery in order to officially change their gender is unconstitutional. The decision by the top court's 15-judge Grand Bench was its first on the constitutionality of Japan's 2003 law requiring the removal of sex organs for a state-recognized gender change, a practice long criticized by international rights and medical groups. The decision, which requires the government to reconsider the law, is a first step toward allowing transgender people to change their identity in official documents without getting sterilized. But it was not a full victory because the Supreme Court sent the case back to the high court to further examine the requirement for gender-affirmation surgery, the AP reports.
The case was filed in 2020 by a claimant whose request for a gender change in her family registry—to female from assigned male at birth—was turned down by lower courts. The decision comes at a time of heightened awareness of issues surrounding LGBTQ+ people in Japan and is a partial victory for that community. The judges unanimously ruled that the part of the law requiring sterilization for a gender change is unconstitutional, according to the court document and the claimant's lawyers. But the top court ordered the case to be sent back to the high court for further review of the requirement for gender-affirmation surgery, a decision the claimant's lawyers said was regrettable because it delays the settlement of the issue.
Under the law, transgender people who want to have their gender assigned at birth changed on family registries and other official documents must be diagnosed as having gender dysmorphia and undergo an operation to remove their sex organs. Other requirements are that they are unmarried and do not have children. LGBTQ+ activists in Japan have recently stepped up efforts to pass an anti-discrimination law since a former aide to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in February that he wouldn't want to live next to LGBTQ+ people and that citizens would flee Japan if same-sex marriage were allowed. But changes have come slowly, per the AP. Japan remains the only Group of Seven member that does not allow same-sex marriage or legal protections, including an effective anti-discrimination law.
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