by KYODO, JIJI

The Tokyo District Court ordered the government Thursday to pay damages to a transgender ministry official, ruling that it was illegal for her workplace to impose restrictions on her use of women’s washrooms.

The court ordered the state to pay the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry official, who was assigned male at birth but now identifies as female, a total of ¥1.32 million. The ruling is the first in Japan in favor of a plaintiff suffering discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, according to lawyers representing the plaintiff.

“The restriction is illegal because it constrains people’s benefits of living their lives in accordance with their self-identified genders,” presiding Judge Kenji Ebara said when handing down the ruling.

Ebara also said he found it “unacceptable” that the ministry’s official in charge of personnel told the plaintiff to “go back to being a man if you’re not having (reassignment) surgery.”

According to the ruling, a doctor diagnosed the plaintiff with gender dysphoria after she started working at the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, and she has been living as a woman. Read more via Japan Times