Asahi profiles Japan's first transgender lecturer

Asahi Shimbun on May 24 published a profile of Junko Mitsuhashi, a 71-year-old social and cultural historian it described as Japan’s first university lecturer to publicly teach while identifying as transgender. The article revisited Mitsuhashi’s final lecture at Meiji University in March and traced the path that took her from gender discomfort in childhood to academic work on transgender history in Japan. The profile also resurfaced online through an X post by user @josokotanoshi8 on May 24, where the article was linked into a broader discussion about crossdress and genderless fashion. Asahi said Mitsuhashi taught for 14 years at Meiji and kept an undated resignation letter in her bag in case complaints about her identity caused trouble for the university. ### Who is Junko Mitsuhashi, and why did Asahi single her out now? Junko Mitsuhashi was identified by Asahi as the first person in Japan to become a university teacher while openly public about being transgender, beginning with an appointment as a part-time lecturer in Chuo University’s Faculty of Letters in 2000. The article was pegged to her March 10 final lecture at Meiji University, an event Asahi said drew more than 140 listeners and lasted two hours. (topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp) The March lecture gave Asahi a news hook for a longer profile. Mitsuhashi turned 70, reached retirement age and ended her Meiji teaching run after 14 years, according to the article. Asahi said final lectures are unusual for part-time lecturers and that colleagues helped make the event happen. ### What does the article say about her early life and transition? (topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp) Mitsuhashi was born in 1955 in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, to parents who were doctors, Asahi reported. The article said she was assigned male at birth and felt discomfort with that from childhood, recalling anger at being excluded from a ballet class that her younger sister could attend. (topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp) At age 21, while studying history at a university in Shibuya, Mitsuhashi said she clearly recognized her wish to become a woman after seeing a woman on a station platform in a tight skirt and boots, according to Asahi. The paper said she first wore women’s clothing at age 30, after becoming engaged, and later entered cross-dressing clubs and competitive cross-dressing contests. (topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp) ### How did nightlife research become academic work? Around 1995, Mitsuhashi spent about six years helping at cross-dressing snack bars and newhalf bars in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district, Asahi said. The article said she used those spaces to collect oral histories from bar owners, customers and others in the community, sometimes writing notes in hallways or restrooms while working. (topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp) In 1999, after being invited by a Chuo University professor, Mitsuhashi helped launch a research group on the postwar social history of transgender people in Japan, Asahi reported. The paper said she went on to write papers based on life histories of cross-dressers and men who loved them, along with stories she had gathered earlier in nightlife settings. (topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp) ### What happened when she entered the classroom? Asahi said Mitsuhashi began teaching at Chuo in 2000 and later taught at Ochanomizu University, Tama University, Tsuru University, Tokyo Keizai University, Meiji University, Waseda University, Kanto Gakuin University, Keio University and Gunma University. Her courses included contemporary society, transgender studies, gender relations and sexuality, the paper said. (topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp) At Meiji, the profile said, a dispute arose over the gender field on her resume. Mitsuhashi did not want to write “male,” but writing “female” would not have matched her family registry, according to Asahi. The article said she submitted the form with the field blank, personnel staff asked her to fill in “male,” and the university president ultimately told the department to accept the blank entry. (topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp) ### Why was she carrying a resignation letter? In 2012, Mitsuhashi’s first class at Meiji drew enough students that the course moved the next week into a hall with capacity of about 500, Asahi said. The paper said students referred to teaching there as “kodo-iri,” a play on entering the auditorium and entering a hall of fame, and that Mitsuhashi continued teaching in that setting for years without ever canceling a class. (topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp) The article said Mitsuhashi also received complaints by letter, phone and email about her being transgender. She told Asahi that if her presence caused trouble for the university, she was prepared to quit immediately and therefore carried an undated resignation letter in a file in her bag. She said she finally tore it up after finishing the first semester of 2025, when only about half a year remained before retirement. (topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp) ### What argument did Mitsuhashi make in the profile? Mitsuhashi told Asahi that greater visibility and rights claims by sexual minorities need to be grounded in knowledge of a country’s own history and culture. She compared that process to grafting plum trees, saying imported LGBT culture cannot be successfully grafted onto local sexual culture without understanding the rootstock first. (topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp) Asahi said Mitsuhashi wants to keep passing on that history and culture to younger generations, especially sexual minorities themselves. The article remains available on Asahi’s site, and the May 24 X post by @josokotanoshi8 is one of the social posts now circulating it. (asahi.com) (topics.smt.docomo.ne.jp)