How to Be a Girl: Mainstream Media Portrayals of Transgendered Lives in Japan

Abstract

Just before the turn of the twenty-first century changes to Japanese laws concerning the modification of reproductive capacity resulted in the removal of some legal barriers to the surgical modification of sexed bodies. These operations are variously known as "sex change", " sex adjustment", or "sex reassignment" , operations. Medical facilities that perform such surgery usually do so ony after the client has spent a substantial period of time living as a member of the gender they wish to acquire. Now there is a significant number of individuals in Japan who have undergone such surgery or are planning to do so.