In a win for Japan’s LGBTQ+ community, a family court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to require a person to undergo surgery to officially change genders. The ruling means that transgender and gender non-conforming Japanese citizens who wish to update their gender in official documentation should be able to do so without having surgery on their reproductive organs, and has been hailed as a landmark win by LGBTQ+ advocacy groups. The issue was brought to the Shizouka Family Court by transgender man Gen Suzuki in 2021. Currently, Japanese law regarding people with gender dysphoria requires surgery to inhibit one’s reproductive abilities as a condition for changing one’s gender. Suzuki argued that this requirement was inhumane and unconstitutional. #Trans Rights