Blue boy trial

The blue boy trial (ブルーボーイ事件, burū bōi jiken) was a trial regarding the legality of sex reassignment surgery in Japan.

History

In the mid-20th century, the term "blue boy" was slang for a transgender or transvestite person who was assigned male at birth. The term was first applied to the performers from the Parisian cabaret Le Carrousel de Paris when they visited Japan.

Trial

In 1965, a doctor performed sex reassignment surgical operations - specifically removing the testicles - on three trans women sex workers who were taking oestrogen. The doctor was prosecuted for violating eugenics laws and was found guilty of violating Clause 28 of the Eugenics Protection Law. The law prohibited any surgery deemed unnecessary that caused sterilization.

Aftermath

After the trial, sex reassignment surgeries were not performed again until 1998. However, the media coverage of the trial increased general knowledge of sex reassignment surgery and the transgender community in Japan.

References

  1. 1 2 3 McLelland, Mark (March 2004). "From the stage to the clinic: changing transgender identities in post-war Japan". Japan Forum. 16 (1): 1–20. doi:10.1080/0955580032000189302. S2CID 39723189.
  2. ↑ Dale, S. P. F. (2019-12-06), "Transgender, non-binary genders, and intersex in Japan", The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture, Routledge, pp. 60–68, ISBN 978-1-315-17958-2, retrieved 2026-05-31
  3. ↑ McLelland, Mark (2005). Queer Japan from the Pacific War to the Internet Age. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-4616-4160-5.
  4. ↑ Baudinette, Thomas (2019-12-06), "Japanese gay men's experiences of gender", The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture, Routledge, pp. 408–417, ISBN 978-1-315-17958-2, retrieved 2026-05-31
  5. ↑ "Intersections: The Process of Divergence between 'Men who Love Men' and 'Feminised Men' in Postwar Japanese Media". intersections.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 2018-10-13.