Aya Kamikawa
Template:Short description Template:Infobox officeholder Template:Nihongo<ref name="Ah-Yeah">Template:Cite web</ref> is a Tokyo municipal official. With her election in April 2003, she became the first openly transgender person to seek or win elected office in Japan.<ref name="JPTimes1">Template:Cite news</ref>
Life
Aya Kamikawa was born on January 25, 1968, in Tokyo's Taitō Ward. She is the second child of three.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> She attended Hosei University Second Senior High School, an all-boys school.<ref name=":1" />
In 1990, Kamikawa graduated from Hosei University with a degree in Business Administration.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Hosei" /> She began to work in the field of public relations whilst presenting masculine. In 1995, she resigned from her post, citing stress associated with gender dysphoria, and began hormone replacement therapy.<ref name=":0" /> In 1998, she was diagnosed with gender identity disorder by a psychiatrist.<ref name=":0" /> In 1999, she started working at a private company whilst presenting feminine. She also changed her name to Aya that same year.<ref name=":0" />
In 2003, Kamikawa, then a 35-year-old writer, submitted her election application papers with a blank space for "sex".<ref name="JPTimes2">Template:Cite news.</ref> She won a four-year term as an independent under huge media attention, placing sixth of 72 candidates running for 52 seats in the Setagaya ward assembly, the most populous district in Tokyo.<ref name="JPTimes1" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite the government counting her win as part of the number of men elected to public office, she stated that she would work as a woman.<ref name="JPTimes1" /> Her platform was to improve rights for women, children, the elderly, the handicapped, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.<ref name="Hosei">Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2005, subsequent to the passage of Japan's GID law, Kamikawa was finally able to change the sex designator on her koseki to female.<ref name=":0" />
Kamikawa was the only openly transgender official in Japan until the 2017 election of Tomoya Hosoda.<ref name="The Independent">Template:Cite news</ref>
Bibliography
- Template:Nihongo, Inawami Shoten, 2007, Template:Isbn