Tokyo —
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.
