On Oct. 24, Japan's Supreme Court ruled that a law requiring transgender people to have their reproductive organs removed in order to officially change their gender is unconstitutional, according to a TIME article.

The decision by the top court's 15-judge Grand Bench was its first on the constitutionality of the country's 2003 law requiring the removal of reproductive organs for a state-recognized gender change. Kyodo News noted that the ruling was unanimous.

Previously, trans individuals had to be diagnosed as having gender identity disorder and undergo an operation to remove the organs.

The plaintiff—only identified as a resident of western Japan—originally filed the request in 2000, saying the surgery requirement was financially and physically burdensome, and that it violates the constitution's equal-rights protections.

—Andrew Davis