A court in Japan has for the first time allowed a transgender man to officially change his gender without first being sterilized

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A court in Japan has upheld a transgender man’s claim to change his gender in official documents without a sterilization operation.

According to The Guardian, this is the first known decision of its kind since the country’s Supreme Court struck down the requirement for surgery to amend official documents.

The plaintiff is 50-year-old Takakito Usui. On February 7, the Okayama Family Court Branch in Tsuyama City ruled that he can change the gender on his documents to male. Usui’s first application was rejected five years ago.

“It’s like I’m standing at the start of my new life and I’m very excited,” Takakito Usui said.

Photo: simpson33/Depositphotos

20 years ago, Japan passed a law according to which the removal of reproductive organs is a prerequisite for legal recognition of gender change. However, in October 2023, the court declared it unconstitutional.

The law required that people who wanted to register a sex change had to have their reproductive organs, including the testicles or ovaries, removed. They also had to have a body that “has parts resembling the genitalia” of their stated gender.

It is important to note that this decision only concerned the sterilization provision and did not address the constitutionality of requirements for other procedures or surgical interventions.

The Okayama court also ruled that the hormone therapy Usui received allowed him to identify his gender on official documents.

The publication also writes that many Japanese still hide their sexual orientation and gender identity due to fear of discrimination at work or in educational institutions. The country remains the only G7 member state that prohibits same-sex marriage.

We previously reported that in Britain, two teenagers were sentenced to 20 years in prison for the brutal murder of a transgender girl.

Read also: For the first time in India, a transgender couple became biological parents. PHOTO

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