// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs the Blue Boy trial feeling down? It's having a blue case.
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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
[edit]In the mid-20th century, the term "blue boy" was slang for a transgender or transvestite person who was assigned male at birth.[1][2] The term was first applied to the performers from the Parisian cabaret Le Carrousel de Paris when they visited Japan.[3]
Trial
[edit]In 1965, a doctor performed sex reassignment surgical operations - specifically removing the testicles - on three trans women sex workers who were taking oestrogen.[4] The doctor was prosecuted for violating eugenics laws and was found guilty of violating Clause 28 of the Eugenics Protection Law.[1] The law prohibited any surgery deemed unnecessary that caused sterilization.
Aftermath
[edit]After the trial, sex reassignment surgeries were not performed again until 1998.[1] However, the media coverage of the trial increased general knowledge of sex reassignment surgery and the transgender community in Japan.[5]
References
[edit]
- 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.
- ↑ 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
- ↑ McLelland, Mark (2005). Queer Japan from the Pacific War to the Internet Age. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-4616-4160-5.
- ↑ 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
- ↑ "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.
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