Paper short abstract:

This ethnographic paper discusses the current state of transgender communities in Kansai, with a focus on Kyoto and Osaka, since the passing and revision of the 'Law Regarding Special Treatment for Persons Diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder' in 2003/2008.

Paper long abstract:

The last twenty years have been a time of significant change for Japan's transgender community. The pathway to legal recognition of gender transition only began in 2003 with the Law Regarding Special Treatment for Persons Diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder. Despite its revision in 2008, the standards for ratifying gender transition remain draconian: trans people must undergo invasive medical intervention (including sterilisation); they must identify within strict binary gender roles; and, if already married, they must divorce their spouse. The Tokyo High Court upheld the sterilisation requirement in early 2019.

There have also been encouraging signs of change in the last decade. All Japanese medical insurers are required to cover transition-related procedures as of August 2018; Tokyo's Minato Ward passed an ordinance guaranteeing LGBTQ residents' freedom of expression in January 2020; and December 2019 saw the first Trans Studies conference at Ochanomizu University, the first all-female college in Japan to admit trans women. However, the topic of everyday transgender lives, especially those of people who cannot or do not wish to medically transition to the satisfaction of the Japanese State, is still under-researched and under-represented in academic works.

This paper is an ethnographic exploration of trans individuals' compliance with and divergence from legal standards of transgender existence in Japan, with a particular focus on the formation and reproduction of trans communities in Kansai.

Drawing on two years of fieldwork in Kyoto and Osaka, and on my own emic knowledge as a trans anthropologist, I will discuss the contexts in which trans community is formed and made visible within an urban context; the compromises trans people must make between lived experience and legal strictures; and the conflicts engendered within domestic arrangements, family life, and transition-related bureaucracy.

I close with a look ahead to the next ten years of Trans Japan and the changes my respondents think (and hope) will come to pass in that time.