Japan: Top Court Finds Sterilization Rule for Gender Change Unconstitutional

Facts

• Japan's Supreme Court has ruled a clause requiring people to undergo sterilization if they desire to legally change their gender unconstitutional.¹
• The ruling applies only to the portion of a law, which took effect in 2004, that relates to sterilization. It doesn't address the constitutionality of requiring surgery itself to legally change one's gender.²
• Under the original law, people looking to change their gender assigned at birth must be diagnosed with gender dysmorphia. They must also get their original sex organs surgically removed and receive treatment so that their body 'appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs' of the new gender they have chosen.³
• Wednesday's Supreme Court ruling reversed its own 2019 verdict that deemed it constitutional to ask people to be sterilized before officially changing their gender.⁴
• A transgender woman challenged the law in 2020, saying that such a requirement imposed economic and physical burdens and violated the equal rights protections embedded in Japan's Constitution.³
• Activists and human rights groups, who view the latest verdict as a sign of growing acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights in the country, are celebrating. However, over 20K petitions had urged the Supreme Court to keep “women’s spaces safe' by maintaining the surgery requirement, especially for those assigned male at birth.²

Sources: ¹Reuters, ²Associated Press, ³VOA and ⁴BBC News.

Narratives

• Progressive narrative, as provided by The Guardian. While this landmark verdict is a start, requiring any kind of expensive or invasive surgeries for a legal change of gender should be rendered unconstitutional. There is a lot of work left to be done to protect LGBTQ+ rights in Japan.
• Conservative narrative, as provided by Associated Press. Traditional, paternalistic family values are important in Japan, and requiring some level of surgery to ensure people's certainty in gender transitioning protects traditional elements of the nation's culture. Moreover, allowing those born with male reproductive organs to transition to the female gender without surgery could endanger the safety of women's spaces.