Japan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the country’s commerce ministry acted illegally by banning a transgender woman from using restrooms that matched her gender identity at work, a step forward for LGBTQ rights in a country that fell short of recognizing them.
The unanimous decision marked the first time the court had ruled on working conditions for a sexual minority and one precedent for rulings involving other public offices and private companies.
Japanese lawmakers have been reluctant to expand rights for LGBTQ people, and the government has supported activists who have also fought – so far unsuccessfully – for anti-discrimination laws and the legalization of same-sex marriage.
“This was such a glimmer of hope at such a difficult time for LGBTQ rights in Japan,” said Fumino Sugiyama, a transgender man and activist. “I think systems within companies and institutions will certainly 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 countries that has not legalized same-sex unions.
Last month, Japan’s parliament passed a bill that banned “unfair discrimination” and promoted “understanding” for gay and transgender people, a measure that would advocates deemed insufficient and watered down from a bill introduced in 2021.
National courts are more sympathetic to gay and transgender rights. Several district courts have ruled that the central government’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, although the government would only be required to act on a Supreme Court ruling.
Japanese companies have also pushed for more openness. Speaking before a summit meeting of the leaders of the Group of 7 countries in Hiroshima earlier this spring, Masakazu Tokura, one of the country’s most influential business leaders, said it was “shameful” that Japan did not approve same-sex unions. Public polls also show overwhelming support for same-sex marriage in Japan.
Yet a Department of Labor survey, as recently as 2019, found that fewer than 14 percent of companies allowed transgender employees to use the restroom consistent with their gender identity.
The Supreme Court ruling contrasts with the recent trend in the United States, where curtailing transgender rights has mobilized conservatives across the United States. According to the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank, nine states have laws prohibiting transgender people from using bathrooms or other facilities consistent with their gender identity in at least some situations.
During deliberations on the bill to promote understanding of gay and transgender people in the Diet, as Japan’s parliament is known, conservative politicians expressed concern that the law could allow men to enter women’s bathrooms and treat victims of assault. to offend.
Tuesday after the decision was released, some conservatives objected. In a 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 statement as “harassment of 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’s ruling on the “hysteria people are trying to drum up.”
She said that depending on how the language and scope of the decision is interpreted, the case could have implications for other gay and transgender rights. “I think if it’s a decision about gendered facilities and institutions, the question is what is a gendered 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 lawsuit in 2015 after officials at the Department of Economy, Trade and Industry told her she could only use a bathroom two floors away from where she worked, from what she said was attention for female colleagues.
In 2019, the Tokyo District Court ruled that it was an “important legal interest” to be able to live according to one’s self-declared gender and ordered the Ministry of Commerce to pay the plaintiff 1.32 million yen, approximately $9,400, in damages. An appeals court overturned the decision and reduced the damages to just 110,000 yen (about $785).
LGBTQ activists said the Supreme Court decision could help other businesses and local governments change their own rules on transgender toilet use.
The ruling could “help local governments make their own policies or ordinances, and many businesses will follow the ruling,” said Gon Matsunaka, a director and advisor to Pride House Tokyo, a support center for the gay and transgender community. “Now they have support from the Supreme Court’s legal decision, so it’s powerful for them to help make decisions.”
