Chiaki Matsunaga was born in Tokyo. She graduated from Waseda University School of Science and Engineering and Hamamatsu University School of Medicine. She completed graduate school at the same university. She is a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is a lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at the Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, a ward medical director at the affiliated hospital, and an outpatient medical director. She opened her own business in 2012 after serving as vice director of Hino Hospital.

27th Chiaki Clinic (Jiyugaoka, Tokyo) Director
Chiaki Matsunaga /㊤ `

　`Gender is the very survival of a person's personality.If you respect your personality, you must also respect your gender.'' Psychiatrist Chiaki Matsunaga specializes in gender identity disorder. Seventy percent of the clinic's patients come from all over the country, suffering from a disconnect between their mind and body. Matsunaga is dedicated to working closely with patients and changing the trend in which this disorder is viewed only in a casual way. This is supported by the pride that I know more about this disorder than anyone else.

　Matsunaga was born in Tokyo during the period of high economic growth as the second son of four children. The name his parents gave him is a typical boy's name. His father, a former Self-Defense Force officer, was a typical example of a strict Showa era father, and had an older brother who was four years older than him, a sister who was three years older than him, and a younger brother who was one year younger than him. As our sense of self begins to emerge, we become concerned about the differences between ourselves and others.

　After his 4th birthday, when he started attending kindergarten with his hair cut and dressed in a brand new uniform, he began to feel strange. The boy is wearing pants, the toilet is over here, and the toolbox is blue... Her older sister had a tomboyish and masculine personality, but she wore skirts. Even though she thought she was better off that way, she didn't let it come out, and I could sense that in her young way.

　When I entered elementary school, I put on my older sister's clothes and stood in front of the mirror while my family was away. My “true self” was reflected. She went to the town next to her by bicycle and even walked there. However, when she returned home, she was overcome with guilt.

　"I'm not living my life. It's temporary now, and someday I'll be able to live the life I want."

　I dreamed of the princess who was raised as a boy in the popular anime ``Knight of the Ribbon'', but it was a wish that I could never express. In 1969, the ``Blue Boy Case,'' in which an obstetrician and gynecologist was found guilty of performing sex reassignment surgery without providing sufficient explanation, caused an uproar. Matsunaga happened to come across a weekly magazine and was shocked by the headline, ``Gender change is a crime.''

Searching for a way to solve anguish through science

　I thought that money was the first thing I needed to live my life. During the summer vacation of her sixth year in elementary school, she woke up at 3 a.m. and tried delivering newspapers, but gave up as she couldn't bear the weight of the newspapers. She also grew taller. In the second year of junior high school, she resumed her studies and earned about 20,000 yen a month from her part-time job. She bought her favorite science books and used the money to fund her trip.

　Traveling alone was also a simulation of becoming independent. When I raised my finger based on my experiences hitchhiking overseas, a passing truck gave me a ride. He went to Osaka via Hamamatsu, where he had relatives, and spent time in Shinshu, and during the summer vacation of his first year of high school, he crossed the Tsugaru Strait and toured Hokkaido.

　He attended high school at a school affiliated with Waseda University. Her discomfort with her gender since childhood became even more of a problem when she developed secondary sexual characteristics, but being in an all-boys school with no girls actually made her feel better mentally. .

　I decided to use science to find a solution to my anguish. At that time, physics was very popular. Schrödinger, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics, wrote a book called ``What is Life?'' Bohr, also a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, proposed the concept of complementarity and noted that physical concepts influence mental phenomena. He said, ``If I study physics, I might be able to unravel the mysterious voice inside me.'' I was drawn to the unwavering principles of mathematics and physics. He entered Waseda University's School of Science and Engineering through internal education and began studying quantum mechanics.

　At the same time, I became passionate about rowing and joined the science and engineering rowing club. It is a prestigious club that has produced Olympic athletes. He was confident in the leg strength and stamina he had developed by delivering newspapers. When they were in early elementary school, his father set up a horizontal bar in his garden and told his sons to learn to do pull-ups. He further strengthened his skills in the rowing club, and despite the feminine demeanor he had always admired, his sturdy frame had built up muscle, but he decided that this was only temporary.

　Although I tried studying quantum mechanics, I realized that it did not provide a solution to my problems. When he entered his senior year, he consulted his professor. He was afraid to openly discuss his concerns, and when he said, ``I want to study life from a comprehensive perspective,'' his mentor kindly suggested two paths. One is to study molecular biology in graduate school, and the other is to enter medical school.

　It was there that he first opened his eyes to new possibilities in medicine. However, since he entered university without studying for entrance exams, he did not have the confidence to take on the difficult challenge of medical school. After completing his senior year there, he decided to move into the biophysics classroom and deepen his understanding of life. His parents agreed to repeat the year because his grades at university were good and he received a one-year scholarship that did not have to be repaid.

　However, the main research theme of the biophysics department was the mechanism of muscle contraction, which was far from elucidating the mind. He began working part-time as a private tutor, aiming to enter medical school in earnest. He was confident in his science subjects, but when it came to subjects such as Japanese and social studies, he used his students as pacemakers to help him study.

　The following spring, he was accepted to Hamamatsu Medical University. The year before he enrolled, she was already married. When I quit my part-time job delivering newspapers in my first year of high school, I was replaced by a woman four years older than me, and we became close friends after giving him directions. She was an adult woman that I admired, and while I was by her side, I fell in love with her.

　In medical school, I became interested in studying the disparities between the mind and body based on differences in the brain, such as neurology and neurosurgery. But such an approach could leave him second-guessed when he majored in physics. He persevered and entered a psychiatric clinic after graduating. He thought that becoming a doctor would allow him to start figuring out who he was, but that was just the beginning of his training to become a full-fledged doctor.

Self-diagnosing “Gender Identity Disorder”

　Psychiatric diagnoses are based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, created by the American Psychiatric Association. From the third edition published in 1980, ``Gender Identity Disorder (GID)'' (childhood) and ``Transsexualism'' (adolescence and beyond) were adopted. Diagnostic criteria include persistent identification with the opposite gender and persistent discomfort with one's own (physical) gender. In the 1987 revision, all names were unified as GID.

　Matsunaga gave himself that diagnosis. At conservative Japanese medical offices, there was no atmosphere in which I could say that I was like that. He feared that even the psychiatry department that specializes in this would lose his place if he made it public. (Titles omitted)