OSAKA – Japan’s family register system, which only allows male and female designations in its gender entry, infringes on Article 14 of the Constitution, the Osaka High Court has said.
Gender identity is “directly linked to an individual’s personal existence, making it a significant legal good,” the court said in its judgment, dated Friday, in a case filed by a nonbinary person in their 50s registered as female.
Meanwhile, presiding Judge Masahiro Oshima upheld the first-instance decision by the Kyoto Family Court that rejected the person’s request to change the description of “first daughter” in the register, saying that the family register system needs to be uniformly operated nationwide.
The high court said that the current situation in which family register system rules do not allow for the entry of a nonbinary gender option goes against the basic principle of the law promoting public understanding of the diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The situation “violates the spirit of Article 14, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution, which sets out the principle of equality,” and needs to be improved, the court also stated.
Meanwhile, the family register system is “basic social infrastructure,” the court said, adding that changing the gender entry just for this specific case is not appropriate.
How the entry should be changed needs to be considered alongside the question of whether to change the gender description rule, and the system should be improved through the legislative process in Japan’s parliament, the court said.
“The existence of nonbinary gender has been legally unrecognized,” attorney Shun Nakaoka said. The court’s clear statement that the current system goes against the principle of equality “is a huge step toward legal recognition,” he stressed.
AloJapan.com