(LifeSiteNews) — A trans-identifying town councilor and member of Japan’s Communist Party is suing a Nagoya man in his 50s for “severe psychological distress” and “emotional harm” allegedly caused by “misgendering.”
Risa Kawakami, a 43-year-old politician in Shimamoto, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, filed suit on April 13 in Osaka District Court, alleging online harassment. He is seeking 2 million yen, or $12,500, against a social media user who called him a “fake assembly member pretending to be a woman even though he’s a man” and stating that “the man has stolen a woman’s seat.”
Kawakami ran as a transgender candidate and legally changed his gender in 2005 under Japan’s Gender Identity Disorder Special Cases Law. The 17 offending social media posts on X and Facebook that triggered the lawsuit took place during Kawakami’s election campaign and after his victory.
“I, Risa Kawakami, have resolved to fight in court against the defamation directed at me and the malice spread through it to numerous transgender people and others. Trans hate is not needed in a society where everyone can live as themselves,” Kawakami stated on April 9.
In an April 13 press conference, Kawakami said that the social media posts were part of a larger “intensive attack on transgender candidates” and that comments made were “malicious and illegal in that they infringe on the right to run for public office. I want to demonstrate through this trial that unacceptable behavior is unacceptable.”
“Japan has no law explicitly banning ‘misgendering,’ but disputes over it can surface in court through the country’s extremely broad defamation framework, which centers on whether speech harms a person’s ‘social reputation,’” Anna Slatz of Reduxx noted. “Under this framework, a statement does not have to be false or overtly abusive to be actionable.”
However, Kawakami’s lawsuit prompted other social media users to begin recirculating some of his own previous posts. As Reduxx reported:
Kawakami has previously produced videos that ridicule women who express discomfort about sharing intimate spaces with men. In one such video, he dances over on-screen text listing concerns commonly raised by women – including references to biological distinctions and disparities in criminal offending between males and females – while a persistent banner reads “知らんがな,” a Japanese phrase often used to dismiss an issue as “not my problem.”
Similar lawsuits in Japan have been successful. Sayuri Kojima, a trans-identifying male, sued a fellow assembly member for misgendering after Kojima repeatedly referred to him as an “old man” at a 2024 social gathering; Kojima claimed emotional and physical distress, and the Nagoya District Court ruled in his favor and awarded him over $1,000. Trans activist Li Kotomo has also sued a number of women’s rights activists for their refusal to recognize him as a woman, launching defamation suits against nine people during the last two years over social media posts.
In virtually every country where transgender ideology has been implemented in law, prosecutions and lawsuits over “misgendering” have been launched. To give just a few examples:
- In 2022, several young students in Wisconsin faced charges of “sexual harassment” for “misgendering.”
- In 2023, a former Mexican congressman was convicted of “political violence” for “misgendering” on social media.
- In 2025, a young woman was granted formal refugee status in Europe after facing up to 25 years in prison in her native Brazil for “misgendering” a trans-identifying politician online.
- A prominent French journalist is currently facing criminal charges for “misgendering” a trans-identifying politician.
The list goes on. Those demanding that laws be changed to conform to transgender ideology frequently demand to know who these laws will “hurt” – and then demand that everyone be compelled to validate their ideological beliefs or face prosecution, ostracization, or massive fines.
