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2 years passed from the enforcement of special law,
but still the visibility remains low |
Nov. 12, 2006 |
2 years ago, a special law went into effect allowing people to change genders on family registers. 218 were allowed to change genders so far (as of July 2005), but in Tohoku Area, there were only 6.
A man who changed his gender from female to male at the end of August this year in Miyagi Prefecture (Age 30) talked to Kahoku Shinpo. He says "In Tohoku area, the visibility is still very low among doctors and educators, so there should be a lot of people in distress."
"I never throw the desire of living as a man away, and the desire gave me the power." He said mentioning about his marriage with a woman next spring, "It would be hard for a woman to live as a wife not legally married. Modifying my gender on a family register was necessary." He noticed his "difference" before school age. "I hated red school bag and Kimonos at Seven-Five-Three Festival. My life was painful, and I thought of killing myself."
At high school, he had a friend in a same situation. He could be honest with his desire of living as a man. At age 26, he removed his breast by plastic surgery in Tokyo, and this may, he sex-reassignment surgery at Saitama medical center and allowed to change gender on family register.
"People who suffer for their sex should visit psychiatry." He alerts.
It became possible to change gender on family register since the enforcement of special law in July 2004. It needs permission from family courts. The numbers of people who allowed to change gender in Tohoku area are 0 ( Morioka), 3 (Sendai), 1 (Akita), 0 (Yamagata), 0 (Fukushima).
The special law
premises on sex-reassignment surgery (SRS). There are a few medical institutions that can give SRS, such as Saitama medical center. The former director of Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology, Toshio Yamauchi says, "SRS could be given only at medical institusions that has a team consisting of psychiatry, surgery, and urinology. That team must understand the disorder, therefore the visibility should be raised.
There are many people who can't go ahead and have SRS, and keep suffering. Masataka Masaki, the representative of a private organization based on Akita pref. called "ESTO Organization" expects maintenance of the special law and give chance to people who prefer not to have SRS.
[Kahoku Shinpo]
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