Japan’s Supreme Court strikes down required removal of reproductive organs to officially change gender

Japan’s Supreme Court ruled that a law requiring transgender people to have their reproductive organs removed in order to officially change their gender is unconstitutional

Japan’s Supreme Court on October 25 ruled that a law requiring transgender people to have their reproductive organs removed 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 reproductive organs for a state-recognized gender change, a practice long criticized by international rights and medical groups.

The case was filed by a plaintiff whose request for a gender change in her family registry — to female from her biologically assigned male — 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 major victory for that community.

Kyodo News said the judges unanimously ruled that the part of the law requiring the loss of reproductive functions for a gender change is unconstitutional. Other details of the decision were not immediately available.

Under the law that was struck down, transgender people who want to have their biologically assigned gender changed on family registries and other official documents must be diagnosed as having Gender Identity Disorder and undergo an operation to remove their reproductive organs.

LGBTQ+ activists in Japan have 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.