• Japan has fairly restrictive legislation on gender transition.
• The Supreme Court has ruled that it must be changed, at least in part.
• In particular, the requirement to be sterilised in order to change gender on official documents is unconstitutional.

Until now, Japan's legal system has required transgender people to undergo sterilisation treatment in order to change their gender in the civil registry. But this measure is unconstitutional. So ruled Japan's Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision handed down on Wednesday 25 October.

What Japanese law on gender transition provides

In Japan, the law governing gender transition is more restrictive than those of other countries. To change gender on official documents, a person must be at least 18 years old, unmarried, have no minor children, and have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Moreover, they must have no reproductive capacity and have genitalia that matches that of the desired gender.

Provisions that have drawn opposition from LGBT+ activists because they effectively require people to undergo invasive medical procedures, regardless of the needs and wishes of the individual involved. Legal action has been taken on several occasions, but without success.

What changes for transgender people in Japan

As the New York Times reports, this new case was brought by a transgender woman. Despite having undergone hormone therapy, she had been required to also undergo sterilisation surgery in order to appear under her new name and new gender in the Japanese family register (Koseki).

After two defeats in the first two levels of court, the case reached the Supreme Court. Which, by contrast, ruled in the woman's favour, finding that the provision was neither "necessary" nor "reasonable". All the more so because the constitution counts reproductive rights among the fundamental rights of the human being.

A partial victory for LGBT+ rights

The decision is of historic significance, all the more so because in Japan it is far from common for a legal provision to be declared unconstitutional. According to CNN, this is only the twelfth time it has happened since the end of the Second World War.

It is nonetheless a "partial" victory in a country that has so far been rather slow to recognise LGBT+ rights. Parliament will in fact be required to act only on the matter of sterilisation, but will be free to leave all other points of the law unchanged. "The court's ruling is an important step forward, but the struggle for LGBT+ rights in Japan remains an uphill one," Amnesty International commented in a statement. It called for the gender transition process to become "a quick, accessible and transparent administrative process, based on individual self-determination."