Visa issues for transgender persons

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows how closely your visa and other immigration documents are looked at by a school or company you might work for in Japan? In other words, who would know that I have the wrong gender on my passport?

Normally Japanese employers ask you to indicate "female" or "male" on your CV - and when they hire you and put you on their payroll, they will take down that record. On these documents, you *can* write down the gender that you will comfortable with.

But I suppose your passport states your gender at birth, correct? When you start living in Japan, you go to the city hall where you live, and get "Alien Registration Card" (it's like resident record) issued. This will be based on your ID - which will be your passport - so this will also have your gender at birth. Now this ARC becomes your identify card in Japan, which you have to carry with you at all times.

So... unless your country allows you to change gender on your passport, you will always have that discrepancy, which people would notice, I must say.

I recall reading some newspaper articles about some Japanese in Japan who went through gender change physically, but because her or his resident record remained with the gender at birth - so opposite gender - on it that she/he always had awkward moments when these documents needed to be shown to potential employers as identification. They were calling out for legal reform to allow people to change gender on resident record, just like names, so that they can live without the unnecessary hassle of explaining things. But I don't think that has materialized yet.