Blue Boy Trial

Japan

• 2025-11-14(JP)
• ▪ 1h-46m

no tagline

Overview

1960s Japan—economic boom, Olympic pride, and a crackdown on “public morals.” An anti-prostitution law targets women but spares male sex workers, the so-called “blue boys.” When police arrest the doctor performing their sex reassignment surgeries, the sensational “Blue Boy Trial” begins. Three transgender women take the stand, igniting a national debate on identity, medicine, and happiness—long before the language of LGBT existed. Though the court ruled surgery legal, the verdict cast a shadow: no such operations would occur in Japan for 29 years. Half a century later, this buried history still reverberates in the lives of sexual minorities.

• Kashou IizukaDirector

  Kenichi YoshidaProducer

  Hitoshi EndoProducer

  San KIMProducer

  Arai MarikoProducer

  Kôsuke OshidaProducer