Being Trans in Japan: It's Easier Than You'd Think!

This article revolves around my experience being a trans woman living in Japan. As I’ve been here for just under two years, I’ll be covering my experience adjusting, finding healthcare, improving my social life, and navigating the government processes involved in living in Japan.

Given that my home country does not yet recognize gender changes on paper, this article will not be covering the paperwork required for that particular process. Instead, this article aims to be more of a “guide to getting started.” This is not a full roadmap for you to follow as I myself am still navigating being trans, let alone being trans in Japan.

When, where, and how I came out

I was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. Up until college, I’d always been somewhat unhappy with my life, but there wasn’t any particular reason why. Well, it wasn’t quite obvious at the time.

Covid gave me the chance to reflect and explore. I eventually tried cross-dressing, and little by little found myself wanting to present in a feminine way–or rather, that was a side of me that I had always hidden away.

A few clarifications:

• Japanese media, in particular anime and manga, often portrays cross-dressing. I’d like to clarify early on that cross-dressing can be enjoyed by both cis and trans individuals. The term itself cannot be used as an umbrella term for trans, and calling trans individuals cross-dressers or “trap” is rather dehumanizing.
• The terms “Ladyboy” and “Newhalf” are hugely inappropriate as they have origins in the sex industry. If someone do not identify with those terms, then please respect their identity. In Thailand in particular, the term “Ladyboy” has a certain nuance. Some do identify as such, but not all trans people do, so please navigate this with care.
• It is inappropriate to ask a trans individual if they have had “the surgery,” as one’s identity shouldn’t be defined by what procedures they have been through. Calling someone pre- or post-transition may undermine their efforts in being themselves.

In recent media portrayals, Bangkok is often shown as a LGBTQ+ accepting progressive city. It comes as a given that it has easy access to trans healthcare and support groups. Unfortunately, my family wasn’t as sympathetic as I initially thought they would be. There have been some rough patches here and there, and I hope we eventually can come to terms again.

Personally speaking I experienced no friction from my peers and coworkers once I came out, with most of my coworkers easily handling the transition to addressing me as a woman. This could be attributed to the fact that I usually socialize with people I feel comfortable with already, though it has to be noted that I have had my fair share of transphobic encounters, often from random strangers.

Finally, Japan

I was an amateur machine learning enthusiast at the time, going to as many events as I could in Bangkok. At one of the events I attended, I met a research lab team lead in machine learning and made a good impression. He invited me to join his lab for an internship given how enthusiastic I was, and so I kept in touch with his institute and worked out an internship period in Tokyo for 2024–2025.

To my recollection, the institute itself did the bare minimum for my trans healthcare needs. I do not fault them as trans healthcare like Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) isn’t covered under health insurance here unless your gender on paper matches the medical treatment.

I was fortunate that the HR individual assigned to look after my visit went out of her way to ensure I had all the contacts required, so that by the time I reached Tokyo I’d have all the medications I needed lined up with no stress. It was really lovely of her.

My first day here, I was worried that immigration would give me a hard time over my gender. To my surprise, all that happened was that they checked my visa for entry, scanned my face and took my photos, and handed me my resident card. I was soon on my way.

As a matter of fact this was quite the culture shock for me. Had it been a Thai government proceeding, the very least to happen would be one of these two possibilities: be outed in public while the officer says they are very supportive of a queen, or be given a hard time about your ID.

Government officials here handle your data discreetly. As a matter of fact, the MyNumber card recently had an update: newly-issued ones will no longer have your official gender listed, and said information can only be accessed by qualified individuals like your medical practitioner with the appropriate card reader.

Trans (and queer) healthcare

There were a few clinics I found online before the move to Japan that could supply me with HRT. Below are some of the clinics commonly mentioned online for trans-related health care.

Unfortunately, Gender Dysphoria here is treated under the umbrella term of GID, Gender Identity Disorder. Despite the uncomfortable use of this term, GID does come in handy as a keyword when searching for a practitioner.

Among the clinics listed, Personal Health Clinic is one of several with a modern stance on Gender Affirming Care and does not use the term GID. As a regular visitor myself, the clinic has been nothing but amazing. My information is handled discreetly and booking is made even easier with their official LINE account.

Note that LINE accounts made in different regions have different capabilities. In my case, it turns out that the Thai LINE account is compatible with Japanese features. It’s best that you email them for your first appointment if doing it from another country.

Medication specifics

As for what to expect in terms of cost, Japan doesn’t cover HRT under insurance unless the medication is for your documented gender.

For trans women, medication comes in three forms: oral, injection, and gel. The practitioner at PHC recommended I take l’estrogel as it is the least associated with depression. For my androgen, I’m currently taking Cyproterone acetate, more commonly known as Androcur, which I imported from Thailand; the dosage is being supervised by the doctors at PHC.

Compared to when I was in Thailand, I’m on a much better medication plan. Medication in Thailand involves self-medicating under the “suggestion” of a trained professional. Previously I was taking two pills of Estrofem a day, sometimes three, all with little to no results.

As someone who has done DIY HRT before, I highly urge people to visit health clinics if the situation allows, as it has greatly improved my progress and made everything much safer. The professionals at PHC should be your best bet without breaking the bank.

Career

As I mentioned, I came to Japan as a research intern in a machine learning lab. Once everything was lined up for the internship, I took the liberty to start applying to jobs at the same time, knowing that my upcoming Designated Activity Visa would be good leverage for continuing to work in Japan.

Finding a job

I had quite a lot of back and forth with plenty of employers during the interview process, and most rejected me, of course. I didn’t find this abnormal, as at the time I hadn’t graduated and wasn’t even in Japan yet. Who in their right mind would take that chance?

But then someone did take the chance. I managed to make an impression on an AI-oriented startup and worked for them part time, as per their conditions before I could work with them full time. Once I moved to Tokyo and started my internship, though, my work with said company had to pause, because my residence status did not allow for activities that engaged in monetary gain.

After my internship ended, I applied for a residence status change to Engineering/Specialist in Humanities/International Services. This procedure was painless as my employer handled everything. While between jobs, I had a month to myself, which I used to travel Japan.

My work now

My work itself is heavily focused on R&D, utilizing open weights on Hugging Face to integrate engineering challenges and produce products/services on top of our current offerings. My work notably is in automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS), sometimes also contributing to vLLM or Sglang for custom inference. I even had the chance to work on a Japanese game by creating voice lines. The experience was very rewarding!

Coworker-wise, unless I disclosed it myself, my gender identity was never shared, meaning that everything remains professional at our workplace and there are no obstacles in working together. With the coworkers I did tell, there was never really a problem.

Friends!

The queer space in Japan is certainly interesting to navigate. There are several communities in Tokyo, which you can find on social media or through Google. It has to be noted that some queer establishments have a bad reputation for being transphobic, therefore I cannot give much advice on what bars to recommend (I also don’t drink outside much). Surprisingly, I managed to find all my friends in Tokyo through online communities like r/Tokyo.

Moving here was actually my first time living alone and independently from my family. I can’t say much about whether Tokyo itself is a lonely city, or whether I was just in a period of adjustment. My first three months here were nothing but depression and grief. It takes quite a bit of time to find friends here, let alone queers with whom you relate. Nevertheless, there definitely are people out there who will be interested in talking to you and maybe being your friend.

My social circle started with quite a big leap of faith. I joined a random IRL meetup of people going for Mexican food and craft beer. The r/Tokyo group was gathering at quite a famous Harajuku Mexican restaurant, TACOS 3hermanos, because the moderator wanted some tacos.

I remember the day vividly: the queue was so long that the restaurant owners had to come outside and apologize that they were fully sold out. The plan shifted and we just ended up walking around Harajuku looking for another Mexican restaurant. Hangouts in the community often derail from the plan, but I have never had a bad time, ever.

Note: Please don’t do this if the online community in question doesn’t have proper moderators! Always take precaution when meeting strangers. Events held in a group with a proper moderator are often the safest option.

Struggles

I haven’t talked much about the lows of trans life in Japan, mostly because I don’t recall many.

Japanese people are very serious about their personal space, which also means that they won’t invade yours.

This applies in real life; Japanese Twitter here is a whole different ball game.

In the workplace

The few downsides that do come to mind will vary from person to person. I’ve heard of nightmare scenarios where employers restrict individuals’ access to bathrooms due to their identity, which meant that they had to go down to the ground floor to use the accessible bathroom.

Personally, I haven’t had this issue; however, HR did inform me that it took quite a lot of back and forth with the building management to arrange matters so that I didn’t have to reveal my identity to building management, or be forced into using the ground floor bathroom.

Generally, I’d advise that you disclose your situation to your workplace and make sure that they are compliant in not outing you to other individuals unless you consent. This is especially hard for individuals where their home countries do not recognize identity document gender change procedures.

I have to acknowledge that my circumstances here being so ideal might be because I’m already working in tech, and this may not apply to other fields or workplaces.

Same-sex marriage rights

I do have one lingering concern, which isn’t directly a trans issue, but rather a same-sex marriage acceptance issue. I have a trans woman partner from Thailand whose documented gender is also male, like mine. While we’re still just dating, we do plan to eventually move in together or marry. Thailand has recently passed same-sex marriage acceptance laws, but Japan, on the other hand, is quite behind the times.

I’ve heard that you can fight to have your same-sex partner granted the proper visa to enter the country, but information on this remains inconsistent, therefore there are no actual guidelines or procedures. The situation being case-by-case right now means that I have no real idea how our life could be together. For the time being we have been in a long distance relationship ever since I moved here. I miss our time together in person fondly.

Conclusion

I do hope that this article has given you a clearer image of trans acceptance in Japan, and how my decisions have played out here.

It’s certainly not easy being a trans person, let alone one who migrated from another country into Japan. There are still several things for me to work out, like how do I bring my partner here to Japan, or how do I plan out my life here long term.

Ultimately, I still haven’t come to regret my decision in moving here. I’m able to accumulate wealth in a way that a senior-level engineer in Thailand could only dream of, I’m living away from my “not so fun” family with an independent life, and I’m able to support my girlfriend with all her hobbies and needs, which for the time being is good enough. If this article does help you decide to move here, I’m sure the community of Tokyo Dev will welcome you with open arms.