ReBit, a Japanese NPO focusing on LGBTQ youth and community outreach, released its 2025 survey on the state of young trans people (12-34 year olds) in Japan in a press release on 2 June, followed by a presentation on the survey that WTT attended on 12 June [1].
The survey is a follow-up to their 2022 survey and was done in part to see what effect, if any, government attempts at improving understanding of LGBTQ issues throughout the country has had. Implemented measures included the passage of the contentious LGBT Understanding Promotion Act [2], which mandated education for public workers on LGBT issues while encouraging broader understanding and acceptance among the general population, and the full implementation in 2024 of educational reforms to include LGBT issues as part of the health curriculum in primary and secondary school education [3].
The following comes from the press release linked above, in addition to information gained during the online presentation as well as clarifications obtained from ReBit on specific points via email. For simplicity’s sake, 12-19 year olds will be collectively referred to as teens.
The survey was done online, seeking replies from individuals via social media and ReBit’s own website. The survey responses were gathered anonymously through SurveyMonkey. Out of 4925 replies received between 10 February and 31 March 2025, 4733 were used in their analysis.
Most responses came from individuals in their teens or early 20s (67.5%). Over half of respondents (56.2%) overall were students.
41.9% responded that they were transgender, while the remaining 58.1% were cisgender but identified with other parts of the broader LGB+ spectrum. Responses were received from across Japan, but a large percentage came from the Kanto area (41.5%) with Tokyo in particular being heavily represented (almost 18% of overall responses).
Among some of the survey’s most important findings are questions regarding mental health. The survey revealed that 53.9% of LGBTQ teens had considered suicide and 19.6% had attempted suicide in the past year. 42.2% had self-harmed in some way. According to ReBit, this puts them at over 3 times the risk for suicidal ideation and attempts compared to the national average. Over 40% of teens felt they had nowhere to turn to discuss their sexuality safely, but for those who did, there was a clear decrease in incidences of suicidal ideation (-12.1%) and attempts (-5.1%) as well as self harm (-9.8%) compared to those who did not, showing the enormous value in having a safe place to talk.
In terms of mental and physical health over the past year, 57.8% of teens, 52.1% of people in their 20s, and 44.4% of people in their early 30s reported issues ranging from mental illness, addiction, eating and sleep disorders, or a general poor sense of wellbeing for 2 or more weeks. The survey also employed the K6 scale (a short scale developed by Dr. Ronald Kessler to test for non-specific psychological distress) and found that over 52% of teens, over 43% of people in their 20s, and almost 38% of people in their early 30s exhibited scores that could indicate a high possibility of the presence of mood or anxiety disorders.
The survey also asked if respondents had ever spent time secluded from society (hikikomori), to which 11.1% responded they had. According to ReBit, this is over 5 times the national average.
For students, when asked if they had experienced trouble or harassment at school in the past year, 89.5% said that they had, with 63.8% saying they had experienced it from school teachers or staff. This was positively correlated with an increase in reports of suicide attempts (+11.8%), suicidal thoughts (+17.1%), and self harm (+14.3%). Bullying and violence were also common, with just over 40% of middle schoolers and 24% of highschoolers reporting having experienced them from either other students or adults in school.
The survey also reveals that nearly a quarter of middle school and over a tenth of high school students refused to go to school for some period, a figure that, according to ReBit, places them at around four times the national average for school refusal.
Very few students felt they could discuss their sexuality with their teachers, with almost 95% saying they didn’t feel they would be able to do so safely.
As for whether or not students feel they are, in fact, learning about human sexual and gender diversity, only 31% reported that they had learned about either, while 84.2% said they had learned that puberty was when a person “begins feeling an interest in people of the opposite sex”. Nearly half of respondents expressed that they wished they would have been able to learn about LGBTQ people and sexual diversity even earlier than it is covered in current textbooks (which currently is from years 3 and 4 in elementary school, or around 8-10 years old). Despite inclusion in textbooks, 30.1% students reported incorrect or inappropriate comments from teachers and staff in classes covering LGBTQ issues, while 42.2% felt the classes didn’t cover as much information as they would have liked.
Issues in the home are common among LGBTQ youth globally, and Japan is no exception. Nearly 30% of respondents said they had experienced living in an unsafe or unsupportive environment, and over 15% had experienced sleeping outside the home for this reason. This includes staying with friends, staying at all-night establishments, in parks, and at shelters. As can be expected, there was a clear connection between having trouble with one’s parents or guardians and suicide or self harm risk (+22.9 for suicidal ideation, +8.2% for suicide attempts, and +11.9% for self harm).
Moving on to the world of work, 74% of transgender individuals reported trouble when looking for work in the past year, compared to 27.3% of cisgender LGB+ peers. This reflects the difficulty transgender people face with regards to changing their legal sex in Japan, and issues that can arise due to many applications requiring applicants to divulge their legal sex. This can lead applicants to apply and interview as their AGAB, despite living socially as their gender. Even after being hired, company policies may stipulate acceptable dress and hair styles based on sex.
Incidentally, these same problems informed the original push to create a legal path for people to change sex over twenty years ago, but clearly the issue remains.
For those that found work, 77.9% of transgender and 63.8% of cisgender LGB+ respondents reported experiencing workplace trouble or harassment in the past year. As with other areas, this was positively correlated with suicidal ideation (+10.9%) and attempts (+3%), as well as self harm (+5.3%). Over 90% of respondents said they didn’t feel safe discussing their sexuality with their superiors over the past year.
Finally, more broadly, when respondents were asked if they had heard or encountered negative or discriminatory speech regarding LGBTQ people in the past year, 87% reported that they had. Across all ages, over 70% said they encountered such speech on social media. For respondents 20 and up, 39.3% reported experiencing it through traditional media sources and a quarter from friends, acquaintances, or at the workplace. For teens, 40.7% encountered it from friends and acquaintances, and 32.9% from family or legal guardians. Here, again, there was a positive correlation with suicidal ideation (+9.4%) and attempts (+8.1%), as well as self harm (+15.6%).
It goes without saying that many of these figures closely reflect trends seen outside of Japan. For example, according to the Trevor Project 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People, 39% of LGBTQ young people have considred suicide, rising to 46% when focusing on trans and nonbinary people. 12% reported attempting suicide. However, the survey also reported that living in very accepting communities resulted in halving the rates of suicide attempts compared to unaccepting communities. Other similarities between the US and Japan can be found throughout.
Both the Japanese and US surveys demonstrate that the need for greater social acceptance of LGBTQ+ people both in local communities as well as globally is both urgent and necessary.
[1] Links go to the ReBit website and press release, which covers the findings of the survey. [2] Link to Japan Law Translation Project. For a discussion of the act and the controversy surrounding it, see Elaine Lies “Japan enacts watered-down LGBT understanding law”, 16 June 2023, Reuters [3] “More Japan School Textbooks Take Up Sexual Diversity Issues”, 29 March 2023, Jiji Press
