The Japanese Supreme Court declares unconstitutional the rule that requires people to be sterilized to change their gender
El Supreme Court of Japan Today declared unconstitutional the national regulations that require sterilization for people who undergo a sex change operation and want to legally change their gender, in a pioneering ruling for the country. This is the twelfth time since 1945 that the Japanese Supreme Court considers a legal provision unconstitutional, which will put pressure on the national Parliament with a view to reviewing the law on transgender people.
La Supreme Court She also ordered to repeat the trial that gave rise to the lawsuit that reached her and that affects a regulation that has been repeatedly denounced by international organizations and defenders of people's rights. LGTBI. The plaintiff in question is a transgender person, male by birth who sought to legalize her gender as female, who lives in the west of the archipelago and is receiving hormonal treatment, but has not undergone sex reassignment.
El Supreme Court of Japan It already ruled in a similar case in 2019, but at that time it considered that the current regulations did not violate the Constitution, although he left the door open to “change these provisions as social conditions change".
Force sterilization in Japan
Japanese regulations in this regard, which came into force in 2004, establish that in order to change their gender in the civil registry, trans people must undergo a complete sex change operation that eliminates their reproductive capacities. For the operation, the interested person must also undergo evaluation by two or more doctors who authorize it, among other requirements such as not having minor children.
In addition to force to be sterilized For people who wish to legally change their gender, the legislation establishes that they cannot be married and leaves fathers and mothers who change their sex in a legal vacuum with respect to the legal relationship with their children.
Until last year 11.919 people They had managed to legalize their gender change. Japan had made progress in the rights of sexual minorities thanks to local regulations, but is still in the queue, along with South Korea, in respect for the rights of this group. From the G7, the group of the seven most developed countries in the world, Japan is the only one that does not recognize same-sex marriages.
