A major Japanese publishing house has canceled its plan to release a translation of a U.S. book questioning the increase in young women seeking to transition genders including through surgery, saying the Japanese title and sales copy were hurtful to the transgender community.
Kadokawa Corp. unveiled its decision Tuesday to suspend the publication of the Japanese version of "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters," written by journalist Abigail Shrier.
In a notice regarding the planned Jan. 24 release, the Tokyo-based company had used a Japanese title that would translate as "That girl's become transgender, too: The tragedy of the sex-change craze being contagious through social media."
The sales copy in the notice, released Sunday, also included phrases such as, "This is a controversial book in which an energetic journalist challenges a taboo," "The frenzy becomes contagious through social media" and "We're against discrimination. But can you ignore the cruel facts?"
"We planned to publish the translation, hoping it would help readers in Japan deepen their discussions about gender through what is happening in Europe and the United States as well as other matters," Kadokawa said.
"But the title and sales copy ended up causing harm to people directly involved" in transgender issues, the company said. "We sincerely apologize for it."
The company did not specify in Tuesday's statement which phrases from the sales copy it believed to be harmful.