A transgender politician in Japan is suing a social media user for referring to him as a male. Risa Kawakami, a town councilor in Shimamoto-cho, Osaka Prefecture, is seeking 2 million yen in compensation for suffering “mental pain” as a result of the comments.
Kawakami, a representative with Japan’s Communist Party, first announced his lawsuit on last week in a series of social media posts where he denounced “trans hate” and claimed to be taking on the suit in order to defend the collective reputation of transgender individuals.
“I, Risa Kawakami, have resolved to fight in court against the defamation directed at me and the malice spread through it to numerous transgender people and others. Trans hate is not needed in a society where everyone can live as themselves,” he wrote on April 9.
Kawakami is seeking 2 million yen (approx. $12,500 USD) from the unnamed social media user, who he claims defamed him on 17 separate occasions by making comments on Facebook and X. The comments included referring to Kawakami as a “fake legislator who disguises [himself] as a woman even though he is a man” and “a man [who] took a woman’s seat.”
At a press conference held today, Kawakami claimed the comments were part of “an intensive attack on transgender candidates” adding that they were “malicious and illegal in that they infringe on the right to run for public office. I want to demonstrate through this trial that unacceptable behavior is unacceptable.”
Japan has no law explicitly banning “misgendering,” but disputes over it can surface in court through the country’s extremely broad defamation framework, which centers on whether speech harms a person’s “social reputation.” Under this framework, a statement does not have to be false or overtly abusive to be actionable.
Transgender plaintiffs who pursue such claims typically argue that being misgendered or deadnamed misrepresents their identity in a way that damages their credibility, dignity, or social legitimacy. As a result, truth is not a defense, and the threshold for succeeding in these cases is exceeding low when compared to many western jurisdictions.
Kawakami has previously produced videos that ridicule women who express discomfort about sharing intimate spaces with men. In one such video, he dances over on-screen text listing concerns commonly raised by women—including references to biological distinctions and disparities in criminal offending between males and females—while a persistent banner reads “知らんがな,” a Japanese phrase often used to dismiss an issue as “not my problem.”
The song Kawakami uses in the video also repeats “not my problem” and “so what?” as part of its lyrics.
こちらが河上りさ町議ご本人です。
— ducklingduckling (@wishiwereaswan) February 22, 2026
批判が集まるのも当然では？
戸籍を変更したとはいえ、女湯や病室、相部屋、トイレや休憩室等を、男性と共用したくないという女性達の意見が差別でしょうか？#トランスジェンダリズムは女性差別 https://t.co/a6sfcWThRy pic.twitter.com/bSYeHvBs4t
After news of Kawakami’s lawsuit began to circulate, people began recirculating the video to criticize him, which prompted Kawakami to target those posting stills from the clip. He also suggested that the video was made with the blessing of the Japanese Communist Party.
Kawakami’s conduct has resulted in some female Japanese Communist Party (JCP) members pledging not to vote for the party in coming elections, with many signaling that the JCP’s female vote turnout has been declining in recent years as a result of its vocal support for gender ideology.
“I’s the Communist Party’s massive blunder,” one female voter said on X. “Voters have the right to say no to that. The Communist Party lost women’s votes because of this person’s misogynistic words and actions. I can no longer vote for the Communist Party that promotes misogyny.”
“I’m disappointed in the Japanese Communist Party. They’ve not only tolerated but actively promoted the idea of these self-identified male women casually invading women’s spaces, abandoning any effort to protect the safety of those spaces. The reason the Communist Party’s female votes have dropped is because they’ve become utterly immersed in trans ideology. And yet, half the population is women,” another female voter wrote.
The JCP has faced criticism for the conduct of its pro-trans representatives in the past. In 2023, a Japanese Communist Party member pleaded guilty to a number of disturbing sex crimes, including entering a women’s restroom to film non-consensual images while dressed as a woman. Wataru Onishi, 42, had previously acted as the Committee Secretary for Japan’s Communist Party (JCP) in Chiba Prefecture. Onishi is known for having vocally supported Japan’s controversial gender identity bill.
Kawakami is also not the first trans-identified male in Japan to launch a lawsuit claiming those who have misgendered him have “defamed” him.
Li Kotomi, a trans-identified male originally from Taiwan, has filed multiple lawsuits against lesbians and women’s rights advocates after they refused to validate his identity as a “woman” and “lesbian.”
Li has filed defamation claims against at least nine individuals within the past two years for making comments and social media posts referring to him as a male. The majority of those targeted for litigation have been women, while three have been men who are critical of gender ideology.
One of Li’s current targets is Taro Takimoto, an attorney who represented a women’s rights group critical of gender ideology after they were labeled a “hate group.”
Li has also taken legal action against Reduxx contributor Genevieve Gluck for a 2024 article in which she utilized male pronouns to refer to him.
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