Japan Society for Gender Dysphoria Renamed as “It’s not a disorder”

From Kyodo via Yahoo! Japan

March 17 2024

OKINAWA– What was formerly the GID (Gender Identity Disorder) Society, which promotes research on transgender people whose minds and bodies do not match, officially announced at its general meeting held in Okinawa Prefecture on March 17th that it will change its name to the Japan GI (Gender Identity) Society. The name change was made in response to the growing belief that being transgender is not a disorder and is no longer used as an international diagnostic name.

Mikiya Nakatsuka, Professor of the Graduate School of Okayama University and President of the Society, said in an interview after the meeting, “This is not a problem that can be solved by medical treatment alone, and unless society changes, the difficulties that transgender people face in life will not change. I hope that the renaming of the society’s name will help people to become aware of this issue.”

　Gender identity disorder was renamed “gender dysphoria” in the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases, which will take effect in 2022. Until then, it had been classified as a mental disorder, but with the renaming, it was added to the field of “conditions related to sexual health.

Since its establishment in 1999, the society adopted the name GID (Gender Identity Disorder), and continued to consider the term “disorder” in response to the international spread of not using the word “disorder,” such as the American Psychiatric Association’s renaming of gender identity disorder as “gender dysphoria” in 2013.