Opposition to self-ID in Japan

[langclegflavoredbananamush]

With the Olympics scheduled to occur in Japan, the trans rights activists have made a push to get self ID through the Japanese legal system before the event.
Japan doesn’t have an organized feminist movement anything like what the UK has, but there are women doing what they can to preserve women’s rights and spaces.
This statement was signed by (mostly women) who are willing to take the risk of stepping forward, and presented in Japanese and English.

(link to original tweet) (NOTE: in Japantwitterland, anime avatars are also used by people who would be considered completely sensible by Mumsnet FWR standards )
twitter.com/U8QqKFjcKNYzx7T/status/1392735461089501187

link to statement (English version follows Japanese version)
sites.google.com/view/no-self-id-japan/

(title)
We oppose the legal introduction of gender self-ID in Japan and stand for women's rights and safety

Japan's ruling and opposition parties are currently wrangling over a new LGTB rights law. The Liberal Democratic Party is proposing a "LGBT Rights Awareness" bill, and the opposition party a bill to "Promote Elimination of Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity".

Some of us, the signees listed below, favour the ruling party's bill, and some of us oppose both. What we all have in common, though, is fear that any proposal to legislate gender self-ID (i.e., how one declares one's own sex) will allow individuals to arbitrarily change their designated sex, even though this designation currently underpins rule-based frameworks on which society operates. In other words, we fear scenarios like biological men being able to enter women-only public spaces if gender self-ID becomes law in Japan.

A belief that has rapidly spread worldwide in recent years—even if not in all countries, but nonetheless in Japan—is that people will live freer lives if they can change their sex at will. Accordingly, the easier it is to legally change one's sex, the better, and a society in which people can legally live in the sex they want without having surgery to change their bodies is ideal. This belief is promoted by Japan's political parties, especially the opposition party, and the media embraces it too. Their mantra is that Japan should move "from a medical to a human rights model" when it comes to gender identity.

Japan currently permits legal change of sex only for individuals who have undergone sex-change surgery. If this restriction is lifted, and if legal change is made easier, this will alter the rules of community life and everyone will be affected. Even if Japan's current requirement for sex-change surgery is not abolished, many people will still be affected if, for example, women-only public spaces come to be operated on the basis of gender identity rather than physical sex. Most people do not even conceive of any consequences of such a change in law, and there is little public discussion of any points of contention relating to such a change. We are very concerned that the LGBT rights bills are being publicised and promoted by Japan's politicians under empty slogans of human rights and the elimination of discrimination without the public having the information they need to democratically discuss them.

In Japan, crimes involving men breaking into women's bathhouses and bathrooms are extremely common. In these circumstances, what will happen if a law is enacted allowing the use of women-only space merely on the condition a person declares a female gender identity? An individual's gender identity, by definition, is not something that can be ascertained by others. If someone insists they are a woman with the right to enter a women-only facility, even if their body and appearance is male, they cannot be turned away. Reporting someone suspicious will be difficult in these circumstances, and so it will become easier for men to call themselves women and commit sex crimes. This will make women-only spaces less safe for people with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) who have changed their bodies and legal sex. For this reason, many people with GID oppose the legislation of gender self-ID for the effect it will have on the operation of women-only spaces.

The Japanese public is still largely unaware of problems occurring in countries where it is already possible to legally change one's sex on the basis of perceived gender identity. These problems include male-bodied people entering women-only spaces such as toilets, shower rooms, changing rooms, shelters, and evacuation centres; biologically male people participating in women's sports; the weakening of quota systems for women in politics, corporations, and decision-making positions; and the dilution of sex-related statistical data. Societies allowing easy legal change of sex also see large numbers of young people embark upon irreversible medical treatments to change physical sex, and the effects of such interventions on the full span of their lives of is not yet fully known about in Japan.

In Japan, the Law on Special Exceptions in the Treatment of Gender Identity Disorder (commonly known as the GID Special Law) was passed in 2003. This law was created to allow people with GID who experience physical discomfort with their sex to legally change their designated sex to align with their sex change surgery to live more comfortable lives in instances where the change was causing social difficulty.

However, there is currently a campaign to interpret this law in the opposite direction and say it is a violation of human rights to require surgery to change legal sex. The ultimate goal of this campaign is to abolish the requirement for surgery in the GID Special Law, effectively making it possible to legally change one's sex based on gender identity alone. Whatever the intentions of the proponents of the opposition party's bill, it will function as a stepping-stone towards this end.

We are currently being told that we need an "equality law" to end discrimination against LGBT people in Japan. Needless to say, we believe no-one, neither gay nor transgender, should be discriminated against in the workplace, in education, in renting a house, or in receiving welfare. However, most cases of "transgender discrimination" being denounced on social media and in the mainstream media are merely calls for a fair society in which safety and security is upheld, including through women-only spaces reserved for women on the basis of physical sex, and the maintenance of the current distinction in women's sports as distinguished from men's sports fairly on the basis of physical sex. If these kinds of unremarkable statements of opinion were to be treated as discriminatory and punishable by law, this would represent a significant blow to women's rights and safety.

We reject a society where the biological reality of gender is devalued, where women's rights and safety are disregarded, and where freedom of speech is no longer upheld. To this end, we call for the following.

1. Neither the ruling party nor the opposition party should pass LGBT laws prematurely, but should provide sufficient information to the public, stimulate public debate, and enact laws based on the results of that debate.

2. The media should investigate and report on what is actually happening, and what situations are arising in countries where gender self-ID is in operation. The press should present both sides of the debate fairly, as befits a democratic society, and not just one side. They should listen to the voices of the women who will be most affected by the outcome of this issue, rather than suppressing debate with accusations of "discrimination".
On behalf of the following signees to this collective statement
13 May 2021

[nauticant]

NOTE: in Japantwitterland, anime avatars are also used by people who would be considered completely sensible by Mumsnet FWR standards

Hahahaha. That really is a useful clarification OP.

[langclegflavoredbananamush]

Hahahaha. That really is a useful clarification OP.

Sometimes when I see comments about the anime avatar crew I want to jump in and say NAAA (not all anime avatars)

An annoying thing about how Japanese tweets get translated (by clicking "translate," or if you use Bing is that if you translate them to English, "sex," (性別）will be translated to "gender," which is ジェンダーin Japanese. So if you write "sex is not gender" in Japanese it will translate to "gender is not gender."

[nauticant]

I like the statement but there is one area where I think they have a problem.

Since Japan currently permits legal change of sex only for individuals who have undergone "sex-change surgery", they seem to be arguing in favour of maintaining this. It's a bad idea to provide such an incentive because I think it will mostly apply to people who would otherwise detransition. By it being maintained firstly it leads to terrible consequences for detransitioners and secondly it means that a potential way back for detransitioners is made far harder.

It's not a problem caused by their approach but rather by trying to navigate within a very twisted framework. The way through would be to remove the nonsense of "changing sex" from the law but that could be too much of a reach as things currently stand.

Trans activists will be able to use this position to paint those opposing the gender identity ideology in Japan to be in favour of a practice which is at best highly undesirable.

[ANewCreation]

I agree, nauticant. I read about this the other day and fear that the horrible pressure and rush to surgically transition for Japanese people (particularly in their very early twenties while they still are covered by their parents' health insurance and before they can start work in their legal new name) coincides with the age of many desisters elsewhere in the world.

And yet self-ID is not the answer either.

www.hrw.org/report/2019/03/19/really-high-hurdle/japans-abusive-transgender-legal-recognition-process

[SunnydaleClassProtector99]

Very interesting because the social and political layout of Japan is very different to the UK, USA etc.
I'm not surprised there are tensio

[langclegflavoredbananamush]

I agree, nauticant, it seems especially risky for young people to have surgery incentivized like this. Also, we have no evidence that post surgery trans women as a class are actually less dangerous to women than other males, there are famous examples. For example I think that Jessica Yaniv/Simpson recently had SRS, although that story may well be just more Yanivery.
I think that among gender critical women in Japan, there is more support for allowing transwomen who have undergone surgery in women's spaces, and between the two groups there seems to be an agreement to put the difference aside and focus on stopping self-ID from coming to Japan.
One thing that's quite different in Japan compared to Western culture is that hot spring baths are extremely popular, (I'm a fan myself), they are usually single sex and everyone is naked. Also, some cheaper housing in Japan does not include baths or showers, so especially lower income people use public communal baths. Hotels often offer communal baths also. So, although the issue is still under most people's radar, "TWAW" is harder to sell to Japanese women. (Not like women get much of a say, though.) It's not like in the West where women who don't use gyms/pools, shelters, etc. can't easily imagine a situation where they would be undressed around a male. Japanese TRA takes on this vary between, "no, transwomen would never dream of using women's baths," to "of course it's transwomen's right to, but they are too considerate" to "only bigots would object."

[SunnydaleClassProtector99]

*tensions there though. When I visited Japan I certainly felt it was a place where contradictions brush up regularly. Generally a very 'proper' attitude to sex is maintained as the mainstream view, and yet even the comic book stores had very disturbing pornography. Problems with upskirting existing side by side with a very traditional idea of female modesty.
It's a good well worded statement. We could do with a similar effort in the UK.

[lionheart]

Thank you for posting this.

[langclegflavoredbananamush]

Thank you for posting this.

I'm grateful to the women that wrote it up, and took the trouble to add an English version. I think the language barrier is an especially big problem for the women of the world, it makes it that much harder to pool our resources and understand what's happening in different countries.

[DreamingBe]

NAAA (not all anime avatars)

Just wanted to say thanks for this comment! I'm a lurker on FWR and part of the blue hair and anime avatars crowd. Some of us are sensible.

[BlueLipstickRocks]

The problem is the conflation of transsexuals and gender non conformity.

As a transsexual my surgical transition was an essential part of my journey and linked to sex dysmorphia. However for the majority of "trans" people need to be taught that non conformity without dysmorphia does not require surgical or pharmacological intervention.