TOKYO – Miki confessed to Chiro that he sometimes liked to “transform” early in their relationship.
Miki (a pseudonym) was born male and lived and worked as a man but liked to go out in skirts and other feminine clothes from time to time. Chiro (also a pseudonym) was amused. They were attracted to each other and married a year later.
Miki continued living as a man for a while. But after a few years, he decided on a new lifestyle and appearance and adopted a female name.
Today, 10 years later, Miki is in her 50s and living as a woman. But since her appearance differs from her birth gender, it can be difficult to prove her identity.
Although the couple say that gender is not central to their married life, Miki is concerned about the need to identify herself because she is listed as a man on her family register.
“They don’t recognise me for who I am,” said Miki. “That’s the hardest part.”
Miki wants to legally change her gender, but she cannot do so under Japan’s law for people with gender dysphoria while she is married. It states that a diagnosis must be made by at least two doctors, and anyone who wants to legally change their gender must fulfill certain conditions.
As it was enacted in 2004, Japan’s Act on Special Cases in Handling Gender Status for Persons with Gender Identity Disorder required that people changing their gender be at least 18 years old, unmarried, without minor children, sterile, and have genitalia resembling those of the target gender.
In 2023, the Supreme Court struck down the sterilisation requirement
as unconstitutional.
Miki meets all the conditions except for being married. In July 2024, she filed a petition for a domestic relations hearing at the Kyoto Family Court to obtain a legal sex change while married.
However, in March this year, Presiding Judge Akiko Nakamura rejected the request. She ruled that the requirement of being unmarried “cannot immediately be interpreted as unconstitutional and invalid”.
But Ms Nakamura acknowledged that it forces people to choose between divorcing and changing their gender or accepting the disadvantages of having different social and legal genders while being married.
According to the judgment, the requirement is in place to avoid same-sex marriage, which is not recognised under current Japanese law.
“Although everyone’s idea of happiness is different, the court’s decision seems out of touch with the times,” said Chiro, who is in her 40s. “I really can’t understand it.”
Ms Nakamura’s ruling follows precedent from 2020, when the Supreme Court refused to grant a petition for gender reassignment to a married couple.
It decided the requirement was constitutional and based on “considerations such as the potential for disrupting the current marriage order, in which marriage is recognised only between heterosexuals”.
That decision has not been overturned.
Japan is the only Group of Seven country that has not legalised same-sex marriage or civil unions. The Kyoto Family Court ruling was a setback after several legal victories by those trying to change the law on gender dysphoria and the legality of same-sex marriage.
Since the 2023 Supreme Court decision, family courts have permitted gender reassignment even when a person has not undergone surgical sterilisation. According to the top court, there were at least 54 such cases in 2024.
As for the requirement about the appearance of genital organs, the Hiroshima High Court ruled in July 2024 that there is “suspicion of unconstitutionality”.
Lawsuits demanding the legalisation of same-sex marriage have been filed by people in Sapporo, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka. In March 2021, the Sapporo District Court ruled that the current law not recognising same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
Following the Sapporo ruling, the district court decisions on the constitutionality of the law were divided, but by March of this year, all five high courts had ruled it unconstitutional.
Mr Yasuhiko Watanabe, a professor of family law at Meiji University’s School of Law, pointed out that Germany abolished its unmarried requirement for gender change in 2008 and passed same-sex marriage legislation in 2017.
“Japan should move forward with eliminating the requirements of the special law,” said Prof Watanabe. “However, we must expand the counseling system in schools, workplaces, and specialized institutions and establish a framework to support those involved.”
On April 1, Miki filed an appeal with the Osaka High Court against the Kyoto Family Court’s decision.
Chiro, who is attracted to men and has not changed her sexual orientation from heterosexual to homosexual, says she will cherish her life with Miki, even if Miki’s gender transition is eventually recognised by law.
Miki and Chiro said the concepts of family and happiness are different for each person, and they will continue to fight what they regard as an unjust law. KYODO NEWS
