When you move to Japan, one of the first things you need to do (after you get a residence card at Immigration), is to get your address registered, sign up for health care, and pension.
I was able to do the first two (as I didn’t have my student ID with me, I couldn’t have my pension payments waived), but I did have an interesting experience.
With my limited Japanese, and the staff’s limited English, I understood it as their system isn’t ready for non-binary people, or Gender X as it’s called in Japan. I didn’t feel discriminated against, but rather that the employees would’ve put X for me within the system, but weren’t able to do so.
The health insurance employee seemed concerned with it as she kept asking “original” and mentioned something about hospitals and surgery. I understood it as she was worried that if I went to the hospital, there could be an issue with my gender marker and be denied service. I told her, and the pension employee, that having “F” on both is fine with me. (I know that’s not the case with everyone.)
Japan is slowly making progress.
Previous: Sep. 18, 2025