Legal Supreme Court rules sterilisation for gender change unconstitutional

[thomas]

Japan's top court has ruled that a legal clause requiring people to undergo sterilisation surgery if they want to change their gender legally is unconstitutional. Several international organisations, including the European Court of Human Rights, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and the UN, had said the requirement was discriminatory and infringed on human rights.

While rights group welcomed the verdict, a decision by the judges to ask a lower court to deliberate on a separate clause, requiring that the genital organs of people who want to change their gender resemble those of the opposite gender, was met with disappointment. "This decision was very unexpected and I'm very surprised," the plaintiff, identified only as a transgender woman under the age of 50, said in a statement read out by her lawyers. She added, however, that she was "disappointed" that a decision on the other clause had been postponed. Some lawmakers and women's groups in socially conservative Japan had said a ruling that challenged the existing law would sow confusion and undermine women's rights. The supreme court threw out a similar attempt to scrap the sterilisation requirement in 2019.

Japan court rules mandatory sterilisation of people officially changing gender unconstitutional

Judges reject requirement for trans people to remove reproductive organs for state-recognised gender change

www.theguardian.com

Japan’s top court strikes down required sterilization surgery to officially change gender

Japan’s Supreme Court has ruled that a law requiring transgender people to undergo sterilization surgery in order to officially change their gender is unconstitutional.

apnews.com