Japanese men are under enormous — enormous! — pressure to marry, have kids, and raise a family. That might explain why three men there wed three transexual women from the Philippines, and wound up facing criminal charges for it.
Officials there claimed the Filipino MTFs used identification papers of women to “fake” their sex to enter Japan as the wives of these men. AFP reports: “One couple, a 35-year-old Japanese firefighter and his 40-year-old transsexual partner, allegedly submitted a marriage document to the Ota city government north of Tokyo in 2007 using the real name of a Philippine woman. The marriage allowed the transsexual person from the Philippines to obtain a visa and an alien registration photo ID card under the Filipina’s name. Another couple, a 51-year-old Japanese man and a 42-year-old transsexual, were arrested in a similar case, said a spokesman at Saitama prefectural police north of Tokyo. The two couples have been indicted for faking documents, but their trials have not yet started, the police official said. The couples met at transsexual bars and had been living together until they were arrested last month, he said. A third couple were arrested last year and convicted of faking the documents, receiving suspended prison terms.”
Just makes you think: Sometimes, it’d be so much easier to be one of these cool new Japanese “grass eaters” — fey men who don’t care much about The Sex.
anonymouse
Horrible headline, Queerty. Obviously, the legalities here involve the false papers more than the actual marriage.
michiko
Just found this while doing research.
The situation here is more of the complexities for Filipinos to be able to obtain visas to work or even to visit Japan as a tourist. Unlike the US and other nations, there is no visa waiver for tourists between the two nations.
Drove these three people to file false papers.
As a preop myself who would love to live in Japan someday, these stories concern me.
The headline is incorrect, because I believe that a transgender foreigner who is post-op and has all of their paperwork in order can legally marry and obtain a dependent visa.