In 1987, Masae Torai caught a flight to
the United States with 4 million yen in savings
to undergo a sex-reassignment operation and
fulfill a long-held wish to become male.
His wish came true. After being diagnosed as
a person with gender identity disorder at a U.S.
hospital, Torai, the pen name he has used
for several books on transsexualism he has
written, underwent surgery at age 23 to remove
breasts and lacteal glands. He returned to Japan
and started taking male hormones in a bid to
have a body more like that of a man. Two years
later, Torai's ovaries were removed in the U.S.
Although Torai, 37, still needs to periodically
inject male hormones to maintain his male
features, he said his anguish over his physical
state has been surgically cured. His social
suffering, however, continues. He still faces
difficulties in many aspects of daily life
because legally he remains a woman.
"When I renewed my passport a few years ago,
I had to explain my situation for 30 minutes in
front of other applicants," he said. "I feel
embarrassed, bothered to explain, and often even
sorry to confuse other people in every situation
I need to show my ID." The Family Registration
Law stipulates that registrations can be
corrected only when "mistakes" are found.
Judicial authorities have repeatedly rejected
petitions by transsexuals to change their gender
registration, saying sexual identity is
determined only by sex organs and chromatids.
Only one amendment has thus far been approved
for a gender identity disorder patient, in 1980,
according to Torai.
Last month, Torai and five other transsexuals
separately petitioned four family courts in
eastern Japan to change their registered
genders. On Monday, Torai and three other
transsexuals also petitioned the Health, Labor
and Welfare Ministry to allow them to change
their registered sex on health and employment
insurance documents and public pension papers.
They also requested that the cost of
sex-reassignment operations be covered by health
insurance and called for administrative measures
to prevent employment and other social
discrimination toward such people. Prior to
Monday's petition, Torai told The Japan
Times that Japan, where sex-reassignment
surgery has already been authorized for people
with gender identity disorder, should now move
ahead to allow them to legally change their
sex.
"Our constitutional right to pursue happiness
is being violated," he said. "Currently, I
cannot even marry my girlfriend." For him,
adolescence was simply a nightmare. "Everyday, I
felt that I was growing into an undesired body,"
he said. "I hated every aspect of my life,
ranging from wearing a girl's uniform at school
to having a high-pitched voice and
menstruation."
In 1996, Saitama Medical School
authorized sex-reassignment surgery as a
legitimate medical treatment for patients
diagnosed with gender identity disorder. Two
years later, the first patient underwent
female-to-male surgery, and to date, seven
patients have undergone sex-reassignment surgery
there. In addition, another received a
male-to-female operation at Okayama University
Hospital in January. Many sufferers of the
disorder previously underwent such surgery
abroad, mainly in the United States -- where
about 1,000 people had had sex-reassignment
operations by 1980 -- and Thailand.
According to Toshio Yamauchi, a psychiatrist
at Saitama Medical School and head of the
Japanese Society of Psychiatry and
Neurology's special committee on gender
identity disorder, such surgery is necessary for
serious cases. "Previously, psychiatrists tried
to help patients accept their physical sexuality
through counseling, but it rarely worked," he
said. "Sex-change operations may still appear
extreme or even immoral, but it is often the
only solution for patients." According to the
latest studies, gender identity is probably
established in the fetal stage, often regardless
of physical or genetic characteristics.
Gender is genetically established at the time
of fertilization, but a "hormone shower" must
follow to establish gender in a physical and
probably psychological sense, during the brain's
development, in accordance with the genetically
determined sex, Yamauchi explained. But fetuses
are often supplied with fewer hormones than
required or in some cases the hormones of the
opposite sex, spawning gender identity disorder,
or in extreme cases, birth as a hermaphrodite,
he said. Torai said he believes his disorder was
caused by his mother taking steroid hormones to
prevent a miscarriage.
A report released by a prominent U.S.
psychiatrist in 1985 said that in the U.S., one
out of 24,000 to 37,000 men and one out of
103,000 to 150,000 women have gender identity
disorder. Saitama Medical School, where
about 350 people have so far received counseling
and other treatment, estimates there are between
2,200 and 7,000 cases in Japan. While Yamauchi
said he believes the registration law should be
amended to allow transsexuals to change their
registered gender, he said it would help just a
small segment of patients.
"Those who want to completely transform their
bodies through surgery account for less than 10
percent of all the patients we have treated, and
many others choose to live between the two
sexes," he said. "Some are still confused over
which sex they belong to and face persistent
prejudice from the general public, which tends
to regard such patients only as sexual
perverts."
Rumiko Miyazaki, a biological male who asked
that his real name be withheld, may be a good
example. Identifying himself as having gender
identity disorder, Miyazaki lives as a woman on
Saturdays and teaches politics and economics at
a Tokyo high school as a man on weekdays. Having
had no surgery or hormone treatment and having
never consulted a psychiatrist, Miyazaki also
has a wife and son at home, to whom he plays the
role of father on Sundays. "I feel so much more
comfortable living as a woman and can't wait for
Saturday to come around," said Miyazaki, who is
in his 40s. "But even other transsexuals call me
a phony GID or just a pervert."
Yamauchi of Saitama Medical School
said it is crucial for society to break through
the prevailing "dualism of sexuality," which
tends to ignore the presence of sexual
minorities and often dismisses their rights.
"Dualism in sex draws a strict line between two
genders and defines those in between only as
perverts," he said. "Such an idea is obsolete
from the perspective of medical science, and a
society that adheres to that ideal is simply
immature and inhumane."
— Hiroshi Matsubara
Japan Times, Tokyo, 21 June 2004
UPDATE:
On 12 September 2004 , the Kyodo News carried
a news report that the Tokyo Family Court
approved Friday a bid by Masae Torai, a
campaigner for transsexual rights, to alter his
officially registered sex to male from
female.
"It has become possible for me to lead a life
as other people do. It was our desire," Torai, a
40-year-old freelance writer, said after
receiving the court's decision.
He was among the first to make applications
to family courts nationwide when landmark
legislation, enabling people with gender
identity disorder to change their sex in family
registries under certain conditions, took effect
in July.
Some 10 other people nationwide have already
been allowed to alter their registered sex under
the new law, according to Torai.
He underwent a sex-change operation in the
United States in the late 1980s.
Under the law, people diagnosed by at least
two doctors as having a different psychological
makeup from their biological sex and a desire to
live as the opposite sex both physically and
socially can apply to change their
registrations.
Applicants must also be aged 20 or above,
unmarried, have no children, and no longer have
functioning reproductive organs of their former
sex following a sex-change operation.
