Japan’s Supreme Court strikes down sterilization requirement for trans people

Japan’s Supreme Court struck down part of a law requiring transgender people to undergo surgery in order to have their gender legally recognized.

The 2003 Japanese law mandates the absence of reproductive organs in order to change one’s gender on official documents, effectively requiring trans people to undergo surgical sterilization. The country’s Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the requirement was “constitutional at this moment.”

Related:

Japanese court rules surgical requirement to change gender on documents unconstitutional

A similar case before the country’s Supreme Court could set national legal precedent.

But as the Associated Press reports, on Wednesday the court’s 15-judge Grand Bench ruled unanimously that the requirement was unconstitutional. In its decision, the court said that the requirement forces trans people to make the “cruel choice between accepting the sterilization surgery that causes intense bodily invasion and giving up important legal benefits of being treated according to their gender identity.”

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However, the Supreme Court’s decision does not address other aspects of the law, which also requires trans people to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria by at least two doctors, undergo gender-affirming surgery, be unmarried, and have no children under 18 to have their gender designation changed on official documents.

The case was brought before the court on behalf of a transgender woman who sought to have her gender changed on her family registry. Two lower courts denied her request in 2019 and 2020.

As the Japan Times reported in September, lawyers for the plaintiff, who has not been named, argued that because she has undergone years of hormone therapy, which has resulted in an “extreme decline” in her reproductive abilities, she meets the law’s requirements without having to undergo surgery. The law’s surgical requirements, they argued, impose significant economic and physical burdens, as well as violating equal rights protections under the Japanese constitution.

According to the AP, the Supreme Court’s decision now sends the plaintiff’s case back to the high court to further examine the law’s broader surgical requirement.

In a statement read by one of her lawyers, the plaintiff said that she was disappointed that the court had not ruled on the broader surgical requirement.

The Supreme Court’s decision comes less than two weeks after a Japanese family court ruled in favor of Gen Suzuki, a 48-year-old transgender man who filed a lawsuit in 2021 seeking to change his gender on official documents without having to undergo gender affirmation surgery. In its decision, which set only a limited precedent, the court agreed with Suzuki’s argument that the 2003 law’s surgical requirements are both inhumane and unconstitutional. The court characterized the law as outdated and counter to efforts to create a more inclusive society amid growing acceptance of gender diversity.