X-gender

'X-gender' (Japanese: エックスジェンダー, ekkusu jendā) is a Japanese umbrella term for people who identify as neither male nor female. The term emerged in Japan's LGBTQ scene around Osaka and Kyoto in the 1990s and is broadly the Japanese equivalent of the Western non-binary.

What does it mean?

X-gender is a collective term encompassing several subcategories: 'chūsei' (between male and female), 'ryōsei' (both simultaneously), 'mussei' (no gender), and 'fuonteisei' (fluid). In Japan, the term is mainly used in self-organized groups and in limited legal contexts; in 2019, Japan cautiously began including X as an option on some forms, but there is still no full legal recognition.

Distinctions and overlap

X-gender broadly corresponds to Western non-binary, but it emerged within its own cultural and linguistic context. Contemporary Japanese activism also adopts English terms such as 'non-binary' and 'genderqueer', causing the concepts to overlap.

Social and practical context

Japanese society is generally conservative toward gender diversity; X-gender people face practical problems in employment, education, and legal identity documents. Legal name changes are possible but difficult; for a long time, changing the sex marker required sterilization, a requirement that Japan's Supreme Court declared unconstitutional on October 25, 2023. In the Netherlands, this requirement was abolished by the 2014 Transgender Act.

Critical perspectives

X-gender is an interesting case: the label is Japanese, with its own subcategories, but is increasingly influenced by the global English-language discourse on identity. Whether it represents a distinctive Japanese tradition or is primarily a translation of Western concepts remains an open question. How non-Western categories are used in Western debates is discussed in gender in other cultures.