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The Osaka High Court has ruled that Japan’s family registration system only allowing “male” and “female” as gender options violates the equality principle laid out in the country’s constitution. The ruling, issued May 8, determined that the lack of a nonbinary gender option in the national system violates Article 14’s anti-discrimination protections.

The family registry, or “koseki,” is a mandatory national recordkeeping system in Japan that tracks major life events, such as birth, deaths, and marriages, and is usually managed by individual towns or cities.

In December 2024, a 50-year-old nonbinary resident of Kyoto Prefecture filed a petition in family court to change their gender marker in the koseki to reflect their identity, seeking to change the designation of “eldest daughter” to a gender-neutral term like “eldest child.” Their request was initially denied by the Kyoto Family Court, a decision that was upheld in the May 8 ruling by presiding Judge Masahiro Oshima, who determined that the system needed to be maintained consistently nationwide — and that the nonbinary exclusion violated Japan’s equality protections.

While the judicial body — one of eight regional high courts in the nation — said that changing this individual petitioner’s gender marker in the koseki would not be appropriate at this time, it also ruled that the lack of nonbinary gender marker options should be reconsidered for the national system. If it is determined at a later date that there should be a nonbinary option, then the petitioner’s request should be reconsidered. As Japanese daily newspaper The Asahi Shimbun reported, the court ruled that it is “appropriate to open a path to allow corrections in a form that aligns with an individual’s gender identity.”

The court further stated that gender identity is “directly linked to an individual’s personal existence, making it a significant legal good,” per reporting in The Japan Times. Advocates say such a determination marks a significant move towards the existence of nonbinary people being acknowledged by Japanese law.

“The existence of nonbinary gender has been legally unrecognized,” attorney Shun Nakaoka told The Japan Times. “[The High Court’s statement on gender identity] is a huge step toward legal recognition.”

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Originally Appeared on them.