Japan Supreme Court declares sterilization requirement for legal recognition of transgender people unconstitutional – JURIST

The Supreme Court of Japan ruled Wednesday that a law requiring transgender people to be sterilized in order to legally change their gender was unconstitutional. The case was decided unanimously by all fifteen justices hearing the case, and the law requiring sterilization of transgender individuals is now struck down.

Previously, since its introduction in 2004, the law governing how to legally change your gender in Japan was constructed of many steps. The Gender Identity Disorder Special Cases Act states that anyone who appeals to a family court to legally change their gender must: undergo a psychiatric evaluation, “have a physical form that is endowed with genitalia that closely resemble the physical form of an alternative gender,” have a physical appearance that reflects their gender and be surgically sterilized.

This last requirement was successfully challenged by a transgender woman in the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The Supreme Court held that the existing law “constitutes a significant constraint on freedom from invasive procedures” and thus violates the Japanese Constitution. The court further stated, “The suffering that [transgender people] face in terms of gender is also of concern to society that is supposed to embrace diversity in gender identity.”

This decision comes as a further progression of transgender rights in  Japanese courts. Most recently, on October 13, a Japanese court held it to be unconstitutional to require an individual to undergo gender-affirming surgery to obtain identification in line with their gender. Preceding this, the Supreme Court decided in July that banning transgender women from women’s bathrooms was was unlawful.