Japan: Gender: jacket like pants – transsexuality in Japan

The word “feminist” was a dirty word for Yutori Takai for a long time. »I come from a rural, conservative area in Japan, Gunma Prefecture. There, men should be men and women should be women. Accordingly, feminists were only spoken of in a derogatory manner, explains Takai. Takai is in his mid-30s and uses the pronouns they/them in English. In Japanese, the singular pronoun is not mandatory – which is why Takai prefers not to use one at all. When Takai used to work in the restaurant industry, Takai used the singular pronoun “watashi” to refer to himself. “You teased me about it at my job. My nickname was watashi.”

While many European languages ​​only have one version of the personal pronoun in the first person – “ich” in German, “I” in English – the Japanese language offers a silver platter full of options. The most frequently used personal pronouns are “watashi” (mostly used by women, gender-neutral in the polite form), “boku” (mostly used by men, also used by women in lyrical or infantile contexts) and “ore” (mainly used by men, especially to express arrogance or dominance). Since most personal pronouns are assigned to a specific gender, trans people, especially trans children, struggle with using their preferred personal pronoun.

“I always tried to refer to myself as ‘ore’ in front of my classmates,” explains Takai, now a philosophy professor at Gunma University. “But in her absence I used ‘watashi’.”

As a child and young adult, Takai struggled a lot to somehow adapt to the school class, family and Japanese society. It wasn’t until Takai met professor Yuriko Ino at university that Takai’s worldview changed. »She was incredibly cool, she knew so much. And through the feminism she introduced to me, I learned that I could question the concept of binary gender,” enthuses Takei.

From then on, Takai read a lot, especially about radical feminism and gender. Takei says that Takei was “born a boy” and always found gender to be something annoying. »I have always asked myself what gender is all about, why the experiences are so painful and why I am forced to live it out.«

Japanese society is full of binary gender segregation. While Germany primarily sells toys in pink and blue, Japan goes one step further and also differentiates school clothing based on gender across the country: boys have to wear pants and girls have to wear skirts. Children are usually forbidden from wearing their own clothes or the clothes of the opposite sex, even if the outfit does not match their perceived gender. If children resist this, they are punished by teachers – usually in the form of isolation and exposure.

In order to avoid punishment from school staff and bullying from classmates, Takai always paid attention to his own language, posture and gestures. Because when Takai moved the way Takai felt comfortable, it was criticized as “too feminine.” There was no family support: »My parents were very conservative. I think they were annoyed that their son wasn’t manly enough.”

The radical gender segregation and the pressure to conform were so strong that Takai thought about suicide several times. The fact that Takai somehow endured the torment was due to Takai’s conviction that Takai was not alone in suffering. At the time, Takai believed that all children endured the same suffering as Takai himself. “I didn’t imagine that I could be so different from everyone else. And I thought: If everyone else can endure this agony, then I can too.”

Meanwhile, Takai’s suffering has subsided to some extent. Takei is somewhat satisfied with his own identity. After years of thinking, trying things out and going back and forth on whether Takei wanted to live as a woman, Takei decided that being a woman wasn’t the right thing either. At the university where Takai teaches as a philosophy professor, Takei came out as non-binary. Acceptance at work makes everyday life easier. Takai’s parents, on the other hand, know nothing about their child’s identity.

“My father probably thinks that his son has grown his hair long,” explains Takai. »And my mother, in her own way, tries to accept me. She knows that the person she thought was her son is now publishing books under a completely different name. She once wrote to me that she was disappointed when I was born because I was a boy. But that she now sees that I’ve always been a girl.” It doesn’t quite hit the nail on the head, explains Takai, but Takai is convinced that her mother only means well.

The trans activist Mameta Endō can understand Takai’s suffering, especially as a child and student. “There are two really important things in the life of a trans child,” explains Endō. »On the one hand, it is the acceptance of the family. As soon as family members accept the child as he or she wants to be, the suicide rate drops dramatically. The other issue, which is almost as important for children, is school uniforms.«

Endō is in his late 30s, a consultant for the petition platform change.org and an author and activist for trans rights. He gained attention throughout Japan with his first book “Ore wa zettai ni watashi janai” – Ore (I, male pronoun for the first person singular) is definitely not watashi (I, female pronoun for first person singular) – in which he used the term trans explains and provides an insight into the everyday life of a trans boy in Japan. In the book, Endō criticizes, among other things, the school uniform, because of which he himself had to suffer a lot.

»Some children say that the school uniform completely robs them of their joy in life. That’s why you’re seriously considering taking your own life,” explains Endō. That’s why he continually advocates for wearing school uniforms to become optional instead of mandatory, as is currently the case. If this is not possible, children should at least be allowed to decide for themselves which parts of the uniform they want to wear. With the latter, however, there is the problem of forced coming out. Probably only a few trans boys would dare to wear pants and even fewer trans girls would have the courage to put on a skirt, especially if classmates strictly follow the assigned dress code.

»Uniforms were originally intended to make going to school easier. The idea was to eliminate the gap between rich and poor through universal clothing,” explains lawyer Tomikazu Gotō from Fukuoka Prefecture. But these days uniforms are expensive. Students are still forced to buy them in order to be able to attend classes. “The only right way should be that students can decide for themselves whether and which uniform they want to wear.”

Gotō himself became aware of the problems with school uniforms in 2017 and has since represented several students who are resisting the school system and in particular the requirement to wear uniforms. The lawyer himself is wearing a red hoodie with a bear print. His office is filled with shelves full of books and toys. In the middle of the room there is a small tent in which a gigantic plush camel is hidden. It is an important retreat for children who are so frightened by school that they only dare to talk to him. Not all of these children are trans; cis children also experience a lot of pressure to conform and harassment at school. Gotō explains that the suffering of trans children in relation to the uniform particularly affected him.

“30 percent of school administrators in Fukuoka had experience with trans children who have problems with their school uniform,” he explains. “And these are cases in which children have come out to the management.” Most children do not even share their ordeal with the teaching staff, as was the case with Yutori Takai. And yet this was not enough for the city to take action. Instead, individual cases are responded to individually, but not in the interests of the child. »The schools then try to convince the child to continue wearing the uniform. So you don’t adapt to the needs of the students, but rather the children have to adapt. This can not be.”

Through legal battles and the media, Japan’s schools, including in Fukuoka, have become more open to the idea of ​​free choice of clothing. But you shouldn’t let up for a minute, criticizes Gotō. As soon as the school management changes, many progressive measures that have already been implemented would be reversed. A progressive school reform seems like an endless Sisyphean task that would only be possible with the liberalization of society as a whole.