The United Nations has recognized the mandatory sterilization requirement to be a form of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the Council of Europe has, in the past decade, finally established that member states must abolish this requirement: in 2017, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that coerced sterilization violates trans people’s right to privacy and family life.39 Yet sterilization of trans people is still demanded in many countries around the world, including Japan.
