A landmark decision by Japan’s high court relating to restrictions imposed on a transgender woman’s use of an employee restroom could promote LGBTQ+ rights in a country that guarantees the community few legal protections.

In the Supreme Court’s first ruling on working environments for trans individuals, judges unanimously found that a Economy and Trade Ministry’s policy that forced an anonymous trans employee to use either a nearby men’s or a women’s restrooms at least two floors away, was illegal and “extremely inappropriate”.