Justice Ministry says children born to ‘sex-change’ father should be treated as illegitimate

Mainichi Japan

The Justice Ministry is instructing local governments to treat any child born to a father who has changed his gender from female and his wife as a child born out of wedlock, it has emerged.

While the ministry claims that it has based its position on the fact that it is biologically impossible for a man who has changed his gender from female to have his own child with a woman, its handling of the matter has drawn protests.

The ministry has so far given such instructions to local bodies in six cases since a special law allowing people suffering from gender identity disorders to change their gender in their family registers was enacted in 2004.

In one of these cases, a 27-year-old self-employed man living in Shiso, Hyogo Prefecture, who changed gender from female to male in March 2008, received sperm from a younger brother, and his wife became pregnant using the sperm. The wife gave birth to the child in November last year.

When the couple submitted a notification of the birth to the municipal government, officials refused to accept it, and advised them to register the child as a child born out of wedlock.

The man refused to comply, and again submitted a notification of the birth of the child as his legitimate child. He then notified the municipal government that if authorities register his child as an illegitimate child, he would file an appeal with the Kobe Family Court to seek revocation of the registration.

In response to an inquiry from the municipal government over the case, the Justice Ministry instructed it to register the child as an illegitimate child.

The 2004 law allows those suffering from gender identity disorder to change their gender in their family registers. However, the Justice Ministry instructs local bodies to treat any child born to a man who changed his gender from female and his wife as an illegitimate child on the grounds that it is impossible for a couple who are biologically of the same gender to have their own children.

The Justice Ministry advises that couples should adopt such children. “If you adopt such children, then they will be given rights to inheritance,” said an official.

Under the Civil Code, children born out of wedlock can inherit half the amount of their parents’ assets that legitimate children are entitled to.