Japan's Supreme Court hands down a landmark transgender rights decision

The unnamed plaintiff's lawyers, Kazuyuki Minami, left, and Masafumi Yoshida, right, speak to media after the ruling of the Supreme Court on Wednesday in Tokyo. Eugene Hoshiko/AP hide caption

toggle caption Eugene Hoshiko/AP

The unnamed plaintiff's lawyers, Kazuyuki Minami, left, and Masafumi Yoshida, right, speak to media after the ruling of the Supreme Court on Wednesday in Tokyo.

Eugene Hoshiko/AP

SEOUL — Japan's Supreme Court has that an existing requirement for sterilization surgery for people who seek to legally change their gender is unconstitutional.

The unanimous decision on Wednesday by the court's 15-judge Grand Bench is being hailed by campaigners as a landmark for LGBTQ+ rights in Japan. But as the Supreme Court sent the plaintiff's case back to a high court for further examination, her fate remains unclear.

The plaintiff, identified only as a transgender woman "under 50," had sought to legally change gender in her family registry from assigned male at birth to female. But her request was subsequently denied by lower courts, because she did not undergo sterilization surgery required under Japanese law.

Wednesday's "judgment is a major step toward upholding the rights to health, privacy, and bodily autonomy of trans people in Japan. It will also resonate regionally and globally as governments increasingly recognize that the process for legal recognition of trans people needs to be separate from any medical interventions."

of human rights and should be eliminated.

Advocates of retaining the sterilization surgery requirement that dropping it could sow confusion in society or embolden men posing as transgender women to invade women-only toilets and bathing areas.