Transgendered woman wins seat in Tokyo assembly

[etcj]

I found this article on Fridae. Maybe some of you might find this quite interesting...can you imagine this happening in the United States?
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Transgendered woman wins seat in Tokyo assembly

Aya Kamikawa, a transgendered woman, won a seat in Tokyo's Setagaya ward assembly on Sunday - making her the first transsexual official in Japan.

A 35-year-old female transsexual, who is currently waiting for gender reassignment surgery, won a seat in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward Assembly, reports Japan Today.

Aya Kamikawa, who ran as an independent without any party support, came in sixth out of 72 candidates for the 52 seats in the assembly.

"I will proudly attend the assembly as a woman," said Kamikawa although she will be listed as male in official election records. Under Japanese law, birth documents cannot be altered and Kamikawa had been listed as male.

Japan’s transgender community views her victory as their own as Kamikawa, who submitted her candidacy forms with a blank space for sex, was allowed to run as a woman.

The government decided to allow her to run for election as a female after election officials referred the application to the Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry for authorisation.

She said she decided to run for office in order to raise the public awareness of transsexualism, including the humiliation faced by documents that reveal birth gender.

"This is the first step. First of all, I would like to question whether it is necessary to have the gender entry in the application [when] driver’s licenses do not indicate the holder’s gender," she said referring to the candidacy forms.

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See the original article here: http://www.fridae.com/magazine/en20030429_1_1.php

[myself808]

this is a good thing to see happening, it shows, (hopefully), there is a growing acceptance. As much as I would like to see it happen in the US, I'm not holding my breath.

[mr. x]

didnt a japanese wrestler dude also win? and didnt he promise to wear the mask to sessions?

[MellowDrama]

Originally posted by mr. x@Apr 29 2003, 09:38 PM
didnt a japanese wrestler dude also win? and didnt he promise to wear the mask to sessions?

The Great Sasuke!

Woo hoo!

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getart...n20030422a7.htm

[kitty]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I understand, the Japanese culture is much more accepting of gay and transsexual people/couples/marriage, etc?

Is gay marraige legal in Japan?

[sOKaLiBoY]

i don't think we will be seeing this anytime soon here in the states.

[etcj]

Originally posted by kittygirl@Apr 30 2003, 01:02 PM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I understand, the Japanese culture is much more accepting of gay and transsexual people/couples/marriage, etc?

Is gay marraige legal in Japan?

Hmm..I don't think that's the case at all...although I can't vouch for it to be absolutely true since I have never been to Japan before. However, being gay/non-heterosexual is extremely frowned upon, especially by family members. It's seen as not being able to get married and have children. Many gay men and lesbians remain in the closet to placate parents and live double lives in married heterosexual relationships.

Personally, I'm not too aware of transgender issues in Japan, although people are socially aware of transgendered people, but I doubt acceptance and tolerance at a level above that of gay people.

[kuanyin]

hey, i'm back from korea...

had a great but exhausting time

and this article is great!!

[rakovlam]

if their was ever a sex scandal involving her, that would be awkward (manga will be based on it).

[Napoleon Chynamite]

nothing that ever happens in japan surprises me

[Hiroshi2]

Why would a man want to become a woman in Japan, seeing that women still aren't exactly treated equally with men (which is true in the U.S. as well)?

[YuheiCarreau]

Originally posted by etcj@May 1 2003, 01:27 PM

Hmm..I don't think that's the case at all...although I can't vouch for it to be absolutely true since I have never been to Japan before. However, being gay/non-heterosexual is extremely frowned upon, especially by family members. It's seen as not being able to get married and have children. Many gay men and lesbians remain in the closet to placate parents and live double lives in married heterosexual relationships.

Personally, I'm not too aware of transgender issues in Japan, although people are socially aware of transgendered people, but I doubt acceptance and tolerance at a level above that of gay people.

My understanding of the situation is that for a long time, it was OK for a man to marry a woman, have children, but really have a lover on the side - not too sure what lesbians did. But marrying and having a family were very important.

Nowadays lots of Japanese are staying single into their 30's, so I don't think there's as much pressure to marry (or at least, no more pressure than in the US).

As for the Japanese accepting TG, the only way in which I've seen that sort of thing accepted is Kabuki theater, where men traditionally play female roles. I don't think it's any more accepted in day-to-day life than it is in the US, but it seems that cross-dressing is more a part of the established culture than it is in the US.

[YuheiCarreau]

Originally posted by Hiroshi2@Jun 6 2003, 10:25 PM
Why would a man want to become a woman in Japan, seeing that women still aren't exactly treated equally with men (which is true in the U.S. as well)?

I don't think it's a situation where the person says "I'll be better off as a woman - my career will advance, people will give me more respect, etc." as much as "I'll be happier as a woman".