Categories that bind: Transgender, crossdressing, and transnational sexualities in Tokyo

This article investigates “ toransujendā” (transgender), “ josō” (male-to-female crossdressing), and “ otoko no ko” (boy/male daughter) as categories that bind through ethnographic research in Tokyo’s contemporary josō gyōkai (scene and business circles). Building on queer and transgender scholarship, I ask what these categories mean, what they do, and how they figure in trans people’s everyday lives and the institutionalization of seidōitsuseishōgai (Japanese translation of Gender Identity Disorder). I argue that categories are imbued with asymmetrical power relations and operate affectively, emerging from contact between bodies and practices. Ultimately, they are important sites for questioning categories of “gender” and “sexuality” in transnational sexuality and transgender studies.