TOKYO (TR) – Yume Ono made headlines this past March when the adult video (AV) actress revealed a closely guarded fact: she is transgender.
Having undergone male hormone therapy and legally changed her name on her family register during high school, Ono recently opened up to Nikkan Spa! (Oct. 13) about her turbulent journey from seeking a male identity to finding peace in the AV world.
Born in Okinawa Prefecture, Ono felt a profound disconnect with her gender from a young age. By her second year of high school, the discomfort became impossible to ignore. She began wearing the male gakuran uniform to school, secured a medical diagnosis, and started testosterone injections.
“I just couldn’t accept my female sex,” Ono recalled. “I wanted to rewrite the social facts, so I got my parents’ cooperation and changed my name on the family register.”
“Better to be dead”
However, altering her legal status did not erase her anguish. Realizing that “fundamentally, I couldn’t become a complete man,” Ono admitted she fell into despair, even battling suicidal thoughts. “I just wanted to live normally. I thought it would be better to be dead.”
Fortunately, she found acceptance. Her high school homeroom teacher studied transgender issues and explained the situation to her classmates, who reacted with surprising calm despite her voice rapidly deepening from the hormones.
After high school, Ono entered a nursing university legally as a man. It was there, through a psychiatric nursing instructor, that she began to understand gender as a complex spectrum involving physical sex, mental gender, and social expression.
“My body was born female”
In her third year of college, Ono made the decision to stop her testosterone injections. The primary reason was the severe acne caused by the hormones, falling victim to what she calls “lookism.” She also recognized the societal advantages of presenting as female.
“My body was born female, my mind is male, but because of lookism and its advantages, my outward expression is female,” she explained.
Ono also detailed the chaotic effects the hormones had on her personal life. “The testosterone made my sex drive explode in high school. I was wild, meeting men on dating apps,” she confessed. She later spent four years living with an older male university classmate who acted as an “ally,” protecting her from societal prejudice and helping her build self-esteem.
STD clinic
After graduating from nursing school, Ono worked as a nurse at an STD clinic before making her debut as an AV actress. When she publicly came out as transgender in March, she braced for online backlash but was instead met with overwhelming support from her fans.
Today, Ono says she lives completely stress-free. She views the adult entertainment industry as a sanctuary for those struggling with societal norms.
“It’s a tough world out there right now, and the hurdles for transgender kids are extremely high,” Ono said. “Finding a place where you can live without stress isn’t running away. For me, that was working as a sexy actress. This industry is a world with very little prejudice regarding sex.”
Now fully embracing her unique path, Ono hopes to use her experiences to counsel and support young people facing the same intense gender struggles she once endured.