Japanese media outlet Abema featured a 39-year-old Kyoto man only known as "Jackie" after he went viral last May for identifying himself as a "trans-age" individual claiming to only be aged 28 despite being born in 1984.
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39 Going on 28
Last May, the media group's reality show Abema Prime featured Jackie, who explained his adopted trans-age identity. He revealed that his trans-age identity journey was triggered by an incident at work he described as distressing around seven years ago. Because of this incident, and the weight of societal expectations and judgment on him, he eventually decided to embrace an age that resonated with his personality.
"I felt a strong desire to stay young and relevant, and I found that being 28 was the age where I felt the most comfortable," he was quoted telling Abema. "It's an age where I can balance maturity with youthfulness."
He added that, while Japanese society tended to place a premium on accumulated experience, he viewed actual age as a mere record of years passed since birth, further arguing that such a concept does not define one's abilities or achievements.
However, Jackie stressed he maintained his actual age on official documents and resumes while keeping and navigating some facets of his daily life as a 28-year-old man.
Age Dysphoria
Meanwhile, Abema Prime also interviewed psychologist and Kanagawa University professor Dr. Takashi Sugiyama about what individuals like Jackie have been experiencing.
He said that Jackie and other individuals who may have been experiencing what could be described as age dysphoria perceive a significant emotional and mental age gap from their chronological age, which has been growing in recent years thanks to modern technology enabling information about age and maturity. Age, he additionally suggested, is increasingly challenging to process as society evolves.
Sugiyama also explained that Jackie's experience highlights the often-subconscious gap between one's perceived and chronological age, with trans-age people using this gap to shape their self-image, often reinforcing their self-perception.
A more controversial case of age dysphoria happened in 2015, when a Canadian man named Stefonknee Wolscht left his wife and seven children for an adoptive family after he identified as a six-year-old girl, saying he did not "want to be an adult right now."
