This is the first biography of Maki Carrousel, a Japanese actress, singer, and legend of the Japanese transgender community. She was born Maki Hirahara in 1942, in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan. She is said to have been the first person to undergo gender reassignment surgery in Japan and a pioneer in changing the family register from male to female.
After dropping out of school, she ran away from home at the age of 15 and started working at gay bars first in Sapporo, and later in Tokyo and Osaka. Ever since she was a teenager, she wanted to be a woman, but gender reassignment surgery was still prohibited in Japan at the time. So when she was 19 years old, she underwent surgical castration i.e. bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles) at a hospital in Osaka.
The transition did not prevent her from acting. On the contrary, her career was very successful, she can boast of starring in over 20 movies and many TV and radio shows. She also released 10 albums.
In September 2001, she was arrested on suspicion of violating the Cannabis Control Law and the Narcotics and Psychotropics Control Law for hiding cannabis and cocaine at home. Although none of the charges were prosecuted, she was placed in a male cell at the time of the arrest. However, the incident did not mar her reputation, and she remains the legend of the transgender community in Japan. In 2004, she was officially recognized as a woman by the Japanese state.
Available via aucview.com
and Wikipedia
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