Overview
- The Osaka High Court, in a ruling issued Friday, said the koseki, Japan’s mandatory family register, violates equality when it allows only male or female entries.
- Presiding Judge Masahiro Oshima upheld a Kyoto Family Court decision that denied a nonbinary resident’s bid to change the label “first daughter” to a neutral term.
- The court called the koseki “basic social infrastructure” and said any fix should come through legislation by the National Diet rather than case-by-case court orders.
- Judges recognized gender identity as closely tied to a person’s existence and said a nonbinary option for the national registry should be reconsidered.
- Attorney Shun Nakaoka called the finding a major step toward legal recognition, though nonbinary people still cannot change their entries until Parliament or future rulings create a uniform path.