Photo/Illutration Lawyer Shun Nakaoka at the Supreme Court in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on May 31 (Photo by Satoko Onuki)

Shun Nakaoka, a transgender lawyer, suffered repeated losses in her battle against Japan’s judicial system, but she refused to give up.

The fight reflected much of what she has gone through in her life.

“You’ll never know unless you try,” she often says about entering unchartered waters.

Born male and now living as a woman, Nakaoka, 38, represented a girl who was born through frozen sperm donated by a man who later became female.

The transgender woman who had provided the sperm acted as the defendant. But both the plaintiff and defendant in the lawsuit wanted the same thing: legal recognition for their parent-child relationship.

The lawsuit ended up at the Supreme Court.

“I wanted to show who and what were preventing individuals’ happiness and children’s welfare,” she said.

Nakaoka decided on a legal career because she believed she “would be able to survive with the license even if beaten and kicked.”

She has committed herself to exploring the legal nature of gender and family since she was registered with the Osaka Bar Association in 2015.

She also knows the judicial system has not caught up with gender diversity and advances in assisted-reproductive technology using frozen eggs and sperm.

For example, a lower court ruling in the lawsuit cited a Civil Law precondition that a father must be male. Therefore, because the sperm donor changed his gender to female before the girl was born, the court could not recognize a father-child relationship.

The Supreme Court, however, overturned lower court rulings and found the woman is indeed the “father” of the daughter. The epoch-making decision took the welfare of the child into account.

More than 10,000 people in Japan have formally transitioned, but sexual minorities continue to face numerous hurdles because they fall outside the conventional legal framework.

People who have minor children are prohibited from changing their gender, and same-sex marriage is not legally recognized.

Messages of hatred against transgender people target Nakaoka’s social media account, and her office has received death threats.

Many women and sexual minorities learn about Nakaoka through news reports, and they come from across the country to visit her office. They believe she may understand their suffering and problems.

“I will continue serving as a strong partner for those who are attempting to overcome their own circumstances and carve out lives for themselves,” she said.

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