# Restricting transgender employee's restroom use "not illegal", High Court rules
2021 May 27, Yuri Murakami, [Asahi Shimbun Digital](https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/aa5458206a6b861b245bc8b3e6220b7f22d8ef54)

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*Tokyo District Court, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo*

An employee of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) in her 50s diagnosed with gender identity disorder, who was designated male by family registry but currently lives as a woman, sought damages from the government for discrimination where she was forbidden from using the women's restroom. On the 27th, the High Court (led by Judge Jun'ichi Kitazawa) reversed the verdict of the First Instance Court, ruling that, as it was the result of proactive negotiation by the METI, in the absence of appropriate precedents in other ministries, it was not illegal.

However, the court acknowledged that her boss’s remarks were inappropriate, although the compensation was reduced from the initial ruling of 1.320 million yen to 11 thousand yen. Practically, the plaintiff lost the case in a reversed decision.

While the plaintiff could not undergo sex reconstruction surgery because of health concerns, the Ministry had allowed her to socially transition at work, including dress as a woman, since 2010. However, citing her legally assigned gender, she was required to use the women's restroom at least two floors away, causing her to file this lawsuit in 2015.

The plaintiff claimedthat she has been working as a woman with no complaints from her colleagues, and that the restriction on restroom use violates her personal rights that guarantee the benefits of living as a woman. In response, the defendant, the government, argued that the Ministry gave maximum consideration to the plaintiff's request to use the women's restroom while balancing the expectations of female employees that men would not use women's restrooms.

In December 2012, the court of first instance, the Tokyo District court, ruled that the restriction of restroom use was illegal, citing that “it restricts her important legal interest in being able to lead a social life that confirms her gender identity”. It also reversed the decision of the National Personnel Authority, whice approved the Ministry's action, and ordered the government to pay 1.32 million yen.

The new ruling also pointed out the social situation at the time, saying that “the importance of creating a work enviroment welcoming of transgender people is beginning to be strongly recognized in Japan as strongly as abroad”, and ruled that her supervisor's remark for her to "go back to being a man" was past legal permissibility.

Both sides appealed, the plaintiff over some of the boss's remarks being ruled against her, and the state denying wrongdoing over its response.

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