X-gender

X-gender (Japanese: Xジェンダー, romanized: x-jendā) is a third-gender that differs from M, for male, or F, for female. The term X-gender came into use during the later 1990s, popularized by queer organizations in Kansai, especially in Osaka and Kyoto. The term is used in place of non-binary and genderqueer in Japan. Prominent examples of people who define themselves as "X-gender" are mangaka Yūki Kamatani and Yuu Watase. In 2019, Japan LGBT Research Institute Inc. conducted an online survey, collecting 348,000 valid responses from people aged 20 to 69, not all of whom were LGBT. 2.5% of the respondents called themselves X-gender.