Mainichi Daily News
KOBE — In a rare move, a 7-year-old boy diagnosed as suffering a gender identity disorder has been enrolled in a public elementary school as a girl, the local board of education said Thursday.
The public elementary school situated in Hyogo Prefecture admitted the child as a girl in April last year at the request of the child’s parents.
It is extremely rare that a lower-grade elementary school child has been officially recognized as a patient with gender identity disorder even though a special law enacted in 2004 allows adults with such a disorder to change their gender in their family registries.
The municipal board of education believes classmates are unaware of the child’s physical gender. “When the child was enrolled in the school, all the teachers were informed of the situation, but we didn’t report it to the prefectural board of education or the parents of other children. Classmates are apparently unaware of the child’s physical gender,” a board official said.
“We’d like to be fully prepared to respond if the child wants to return to his original physical gender in the future,” the official added.