Transsexual Can't Alter Birth Data

[TOKYO] - The Tokyo Family Court has thrown out a request filed by a transsexual in 2001 to allow him to alter his gender in the country's family register.

The man, in his 40s, was born a woman, but had sex reassignment surgery to become a man at Saitama Medical School, the first medical facility in Japan to offer the procedure.

The court said that the man was "biologically female at the time of birth," and that therefore the original records could not be changed.

This is the third case in which a court has not allowed transsexuals to change genders in family registers, following two cases in August and December of last year.