[Tsuwabuki]

Yoshimi is claiming to have Gender Identity Disorder. That is, where anatomical sex (in this case female) does not match up with internal sense of gender (male, or masculine).

Transvestites are crossdressers, and fall under another category entirely and would not be the basis for the current discussion.

I am very much an egalitarian, when it comes to gender/sex. In my opinion, I feel little should be separated at all, including bathrooms. There are individual stalls. Why does it matter? And in fact, there are plenty of bathrooms in Japan that ARE unisex, with urinals and stalls both, so if anything, Japan is more enlightened about that. The bathrooms in Amanohashidate, for example, are in this pattern.

I would not say that gender separation is common in Japan when it comes to physical segregation like in the example of the bus. Rather, I think gender inequality is generally more mental, and not really different than the mental inequality in most western societies. Both men and women are pigeon-holed into roles, and in some ways this may be clearer in Japan, but in all honesty, I would say America is just as bad (but maybe less vocal about it).

Like homosexuality, transgendered individuals are much more often to be "stealth" than in western societies. They exist, but they are not visible. In Japan, my experience has been that matters relating to "alternative lifestyles" (not my term) are tolerated as long as they are low-key. There's a greater middle-ground than in western societies, so you don't have groups of religious conservatives vs. a rainbow pride parade. Straight, gay, transgendered, or gender-normative, most Japanese would find both groups to be offensive by being so gosh darn loud.