Human Rights Watch has urged Japan to drop its requirement that transgender people be sterilised to have their gender changed on official documents. A 2004 law says people wishing to register a gender change must have their original reproductive organs removed and have a body that “appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs” of the gender they want to register. The Supreme Court in January rejected an appeal by a transgender man who wanted legal recognition without undergoing surgery, although the court acknowledged that the practice restricts freedom and could become out of step with changing social values.