TOKYO

Tokyo District Court ordered the Japanese government Thursday to pay 1.32 million yen in damages to a transgender woman working at the trade ministry for restricting her use of the women's bathroom in the ministry.

Also ordering the ministry to allow her to freely use the bathroom, Presiding Judge Kenji Ebara said, "The restriction is illegal because it constrains people's interest of living social lives in accordance with their self-identified genders."

In the lawsuit, the trans woman in her 50s sought 16.5-million-yen compensation for psychological pain caused by the bathroom restriction and improvements in work conditions.

Her lawyers said the ruling is the first in Japan regarding improvements in work environments for sexual and gender minorities.

The plaintiff entered the ministry as a man and was later diagnosed with gender identity disorder. She gained approval to work as a woman in 2010, but could not change her gender on the family registry as she was physically incapable of undergoing sex reassignment surgery.

The ministry allowed her to dress as a woman and use the women's break room, but prohibited her from using women's bathrooms on her floor and on the floors directly above and underneath it.

She filed a complaint with the National Personnel Authority, but it was dismissed. She took the government to court in 2015 to demand compensation and a revocation of the NPA's decision.

The government argued that some female workers at the ministry were against the idea of a trans woman entering the women's bathroom, and that the restriction was within the ministry's discretion.

In his ruling, the judge pointed out that chances of the plaintiff being recognized as a woman by others proved high and, therefore, the government cannot justify the bathroom ban by citing such an "abstract" possibility of trouble.

As for the ministry's demand that the plaintiff publicly declare her registered sex as a man in order to freely use the bathroom, Ebara determined that it was "abuse of discretion."

Furthermore, he found it "unacceptable" that the ministry's personnel management official told the plaintiff, "You should go back to being a man if you're not having (reassignment) surgery."

The ministry said it will consider whether to appeal the ruling after consulting related ministries and agencies.

Jiji Press