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Japan’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the country’s trade ministry acted illegally in restricting a transgender woman from using restrooms at work that aligned with her gender identity, a step forward for L.G.B.T.Q. rights in a nation that has lagged in recognizing them.
The unanimous decision was the first time the court has ruled on workplace conditions for a sexual minority and could set a precedent for rulings relating to other public offices and private companies.
Japanese lawmakers have been reluctant to expand rights for L.G.B.T.Q. people, and the ruling buoyed activists who have also been fighting — so far unsuccessfully — for anti-discrimination laws and the legalization of same-sex marriage.
“This was such a ray of hope during such a tough time for L.G.B.T.Q. rights in Japan,” said Fumino Sugiyama, a transgender man and activist. “I think systems within companies and institutions will definitely change because of this decision,” he added. The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
Japan has fallen behind its global peers in recognizing gay and transgender rights. It is the only member of the Group of 7 nations that has not legalized same-sex unions.
Last month, the Japanese Parliament passed a bill that outlawed “unfair discrimination” and promoted “understanding” of gay and transgender people, a measure that rights advocates deemed insufficient and watered down from a bill submitted in 2021.
The nation’s courts have been more sympathetic to gay and transgender rights. Several district courts have ruled the central government’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, although the government would only be obligated to act on a ruling by the Supreme Court.
Japanese companies have also pushed for more openness. Before a summit meeting of the leaders of the Group of 7 nations in Hiroshima earlier this spring, Masakazu Tokura, one of the country’s most influential business leaders said it was “embarrassing” that Japan had not sanctioned same-sex unions. Public polls also show overwhelming support for same-sex marriage in Japan.
Still, as recently as 2019, a labor ministry survey showed that less than 14 percent of companies allowed transgender employees to use the restroom that aligned with their gender identity.
The Supreme Court decision stands in contrast to the recent trend in the United States, where restricting transgender rights has mobilized conservatives in the United States. Nine states have laws banning transgender people from using bathrooms or other facilities that align with their gender identity in at least some settings, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank.
During deliberations over the bill promoting understanding of gay and transgender people in the Diet, as Japan’s Parliament is known, conservative politicians raised concerns that the law might enable men to barge into women’s bathrooms and assault victims.
On Tuesday after the decision was released, some conservatives objected. In one post on Twitter, Nana Honma, a former city government official, wrote that a transgender woman still had the “body of a man” and in another tweet described the ruling as “harassment against women.”
Elin McCready, a transgender woman, activist and professor of linguistics and philosophy at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, said she wondered about the implications of the Supreme Court decision on the “hysteria that people are trying to drum up.”
She said depending on how the language and scope of the decision is interpreted, the case could affect other rights for gay and transgender people. “I guess if it’s a decision about gender facilities and institutions, then the question is what constitutes a gender facility or institution?” she said. “Is the institution of marriage a comparable institution to a toilet?”
The plaintiff in the case, a transgender woman in her 50s, filed her suit in 2015 after officials at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said she could only use a bathroom two floors away from where she worked, out of what they said was consideration for female colleagues.
In 2019, the Tokyo district court ruled that it was an “important legal interest” to be able to live in accordance with one’s self-identified gender and ordered the trade ministry to pay the plaintiff 1.32 million yen, about $9,400, in damages. An appeals court overturned the decision and reduced the damages award to just 110,000 yen (about $785).
L.G.B.T.Q. activists said that the Supreme Court decision could help nudge other companies and local governments to change their own rules governing the use of restrooms by transgender people.
The ruling could help “local governments to make their own policy or their own ordinances, and many companies will follow the judgment,” said Gon Matsunaka, a director and adviser to Pride House Tokyo, a support center for the gay and transgender community. “Now they have support from the legal decision at the Supreme Court, so it’s powerful for them to help make decisions.”
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