Three gender categories-Tokyo marathon: Japan is free

Anyone who is unsure about their gender or rejects it completely has it not easy in sport. Practically every athletic competitive discipline is divided into female and male. Men compete against each other, also women. This division of two is based on the traditional understanding that men have different bodies than women and secondly there are only two genders. So far, there has been hardly any echo in sport that research has long since recognized shades.

But that is changing. On Sunday at the marathon in Tokyo, the participants will no longer only compete in the categories men and women. When registering, the participants can voluntarily select a third field: “Non-navigator” call it the official. The marathon in the Japanese capital – in addition to those in Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London and New York, is one of the six elite runs of the World Marathon Majors – is no longer just one of the most important competitions, but also one of the most open.

“The Tokyo Marathon is committed to promoting diversity, equality and inclusion and intends to become the most inclusive race in the world,” said a press release from the event last summer. There is now a third gender category in all areas: whether among participants with visual impairment, those with a wheelchair or those that can run without disabilities. In addition, the results of the non-binary participants are listed in a separate category of rating. There has never been in Japan.

The step in the East Asian country is almost logical. Over the past decades, the ideal of the “homogeneous society” in Japan, according to which the members of society are largely similar, have followed the same values, which should provide social harmony. Only this “Japanese model” has meant conservatism over the decades and sometimes even foreclosure. One consequence: Japan’s population shrinks, the economy has not been growing for decades.

The old approach is now considered outdated. Japan wants to become more colorful – which is particularly evident in sports. As a Tokyo – with a panda mie -related delay by one year – in 2021, the Summer Olympic Games came out, the saying “Unity in diversity”, ie “unity in diversity”, was emblazoned everywhere. Since then, regulations for athletes from abroad have also been relaxed in several sports, for example in volleyball. Japan has been internationalized for years at a high pace.

And the country also diversifies itself in terms of gender. In the middle of a large shortage of labor, companies are increasingly promoting rainbow flags to position themselves open to everyone. Open non-heterosexual or non-binaries in active professional sports are far from being common in Japan. The heteronormativity remains widespread, as athletes repeatedly emphasized after their careers. But the direction that Japan has taken is clear.

And now you want to lead the world when it comes to inclusion. A few steps are still necessary for this. Because as part of the World Marathon Majors, Tokyo is not the first race in which non-binary people can also register as such. Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London and New York introduced this category in 2021. Japan’s capital is rather a straggler. However, the step is likely to be embarrassed for global sport. Because the gender issue has repeatedly caused a dispute across sports. Trans* or Intersex* people were repeatedly excluded from competitions, also from the World Athletics Association, which includes marathon sport.

Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the World Association, is of the opinion that the approval of athletes that do not fit into one of the two traditional gender categories is a decision between “fairness or inclusion”. If, for example, trans* women take part in the category of women, athletes who have less male hormones are at a disadvantage. So far, the World Athletics Association clearly tends to provide fairness over inclusion in order to protect women’s sports.

The introduction of a third gender category could turn out to be a new way, although it will not solve all problems either. Because “non-bobsome” is not a name that appeals to everyone who does not understand himself as a man or as a woman. Trans* People, in turn, usually accept the binaryness between man and woman, only see on the side into which they were not divided at birth. The livelihood of trans* people in sports would remain. Maybe Tokyo will come from Tokyo, where you want to organize the most inclusive race in the world, soon a new solution.