http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=comment&id=676
Masae Torai
In Japan, each citizen is automatically enrolled in the family registry system. The registry lists all family members and is used by the government for various administrative purposes. (Korea and Taiwan are the only other countries that use this scheme, because Japan imposed it on them during its occupation.) Seeing as it forms the basis of all subsequent legal documents, the registry presents a real problem for some people.
The transgendered are among those with difficulties. That's because all legal documents in Japan, except for drivers' licenses, list the person's sex. Transgendered people, who lead an existence opposite that of their birth sex, are treated as if their very lives were proof of their criminality.
This burden, however, seemed to ease this summer when a law allowing citizens to change their gender went into effect. The transgendered can — for the first time — legally rent a house, work as a regular company employee, go to the doctor without hassle, and get married. (Transgenderism and homosexuality are separate issues; homosexuals can't get married in Japan yet.)