Photo/Illutration Lawyers representing a transgender employee of the economy ministry meet reporters in Tokyo on July 11 after the Supreme Court ruling. (The Asahi Shimbun)

A court ruling affirmed the importance of respecting the wishes of transgender people to work in accordance with their own gender identity by ensuring that their workplaces make that possible.

A transgender female employee of the economy ministry, who is registered as a male on her family registry but lives and works as a woman, took the government to court for imposing restrictions on her use of women’s bathrooms at the ministry.

The Supreme Court on July 11 ruled the government’s action as illegal.

According to the ruling, the plaintiff informed the ministry in 2009 of her desire to work as a woman.

But the ministry instructed her, after holding a briefing for other employees, to refrain from using women’s bathrooms on the floor she works, as well as on the floors immediate above and below.

The plaintiff appealed to the National Personnel Authority to let her use the women’s bathrooms on her floor. The NPA turned down her appeal, and she instituted the lawsuit to demand that the decision be revoked.

At the employees’ briefing mentioned above, not one person opposed the plaintiff’s use of women’s bathrooms on her floor. And during the nearly five years’ interval before the NPA made its decision, she had no issues with employees on the floors above and below her office.

However, nothing was done to remove the restrictions, and the Supreme Court took this seriously. In its latest ruling, the top court faulted the NPA for ignoring these incontestable facts and instead giving undue consideration for other employees.

The government, which is supposed to lead the nation in improving the workplace environment for sexual minorities, bears a heavy responsibility for allowing the plaintiff to suffer those restrictions for more than 10 years.

Nobody should ever be denied free access to a bathroom. The government’s treatment of the plaintiff, even after her employment as a woman by the economy ministry became fully established, constituted a gross affront against her personal dignity.

The law on special cases of handling gender status for persons with gender identity disorder, which came into effect in 2004, allows transgender people to change the sex by which they are identified on their family register.

However, the change also requires them to undergo sex-reassignment surgery. As the procedure is taxing on the body, many people hesitate to go through it. The plaintiff herself has not had the surgery for health reasons.

Multiple supporting opinions of the Supreme Court justices involved in the latest decision noted that the government should fully respect the gender identity of individuals who have not gotten around to changing their sex on the family register in dealing with them.

Nothing can replace the value of living in accordance with one’s own gender identity. We believe the Supreme Court’s decision needs to be accepted at all places of work, including those of private businesses.

Since it is natural for anyone to feel uncertain or uncomfortable at first if an employee changes his or her gender identity, it is vital that the employer coordinate the interests of transgender employees and those of their colleagues.

The only thing that must be avoided at all costs is to be ruled by some abstract, unsubstantiated anxiety.

Supreme Court Justice Eriko Watanabe commented in her supporting opinion of the need to consider, objectively and specifically, what other female employees may lose by accepting the use of women’s bathrooms by their transgender female colleague when prejudice against and lack of understanding of sexual minorities still exist.

Some transgender people are struggling to decide what to do about issues such as routine health exams and the use of gender-segregated locker rooms, as well as to what extent they should share their concerns with their superiors and colleagues.

We need to build a society that understands the situation that transgender people are in and accept them for who they are.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 12

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