TOKYO - A city assembly member in central Japan was ordered on Thursday to pay damages to award-winning author Li Kotomi for revealing her gender, name and photo before her gender transition on social media against her will.
The Tokyo District Court ruled that online posts made by Kofu assembly member Hiromi Muramatsu violated Li's privacy and ordered Muramatsu to pay 1.1 million yen ($7,000). Li had sought 5.5 million yen in damages.
According to the complaint, Li, who is originally from Taiwan, changed gender from male to female before coming to Japan in 2013 and had been living her life without publicly disclosing this information.
In May 2024, Muramatsu, who did not know Li personally, posted on Facebook that "her body is male, and she has not undergone surgery."
After being cautioned by police, who had been consulted by Li, Muramatsu deleted the post but then uploaded a photo of her and her full name from before her gender transition.
Li has stated that the series of actions left her with no choice but to publicly disclose that she is transgender.
Li won the Akutagawa Prize in 2021 for her novel "Higanbana ga Saku Shima" (Island Where Red Spider Lilies Bloom), becoming the second person to win the prestigious literary award without the Japanese language being their native tongue after China-born novelist Yang Yi.
