Balance Policy is a science fictionmanga series by Akihito Yoshitomi. It was originally just planned as a 6-page story, but was expanded as Yoshitomi saw potential to develop the setting further, and was serialized by Shōnen Gahōsha in 2010–2014 in their magazine Change H; it has since been collected in two tankōbon volumes. A one-shot finale, Tokyo Shoujo, was published in 2016, and was collected in a volume together with Yoshitomi's series Lily System in 2019. The story is set in the near future in Japan after birth rates have declined significantly, and follows Kenji, who has been chosen to be part of a government initiative to counteract this, where men are put through a feminization procedure that makes them able to give birth. Critics called the story emotionally resonant, but considered its premise of forcibly having one's body altered questionable.
Plot
Balance Policy is set in Japan in a near future after birth rates have declined dramatically worldwide, particularly of girls. To counteract this, the government has invested large amounts of money into enacting policies and procedures to feminize men, making them able to give birth, and has over the course of ten years done this with 934 people. Kenji, one of the main characters, is chosen as one of those to undergo this, and returns home after a year looking like a woman, and catches up with his best friend Masaomi; the story depicts the psychology of the characters following the change, and Masaomi's confusion. Although the series is billed as a transgendermanga, Kenji is portrayed as still identifying as male, with the changes only applying to his body.
Production and release
Balance Policy was written and illustrated by Akihito Yoshitomi, who initially intended to finish the story in just six pages, but continued as he thought there was room to continue developing the setting. The series was serialized by Shōnen Gahōsha in their magazine Change H, a manga anthology featuring stories with transgender or cross-dressing themes, starting with issue 3 on April 26, 2010. It stayed on the magazine through its title change to Trans Switch in 2013, until the magazine's final issue on February 28, 2014. Shōnen Gahōsha later collected the series in two tankōbon volumes under TS Comics, their imprint for transgender-themed manga, and released them from November 19, 2012 to May 31, 2014. At release, the tankōbon volumes came bundled with art prints of Balance Policy illustrations at some book stores. A one-shot finale, Tokyo Shoujo, was published by Shōnen Gahōsha in Young ComicJuly 2016 issue on June 10, 2016, and was included in the tankōbon release of Yoshitomi's series Lily System, which was released on March 11, 2019 under Shōnen Gahōsha's YK Comics imprint.
Volumes
Reception
IT Media included Balance Policy in a feature on recommended manga with transgender themes. They called it charming, describing its straight-forward narrative tone as gripping, and saying that the careful depiction of the characters' psychology made for an emotionally resonant story. Da Vinci called the premise ridiculous, and questioned whether the need to raise the birth rate could conceivably be dire enough for people to be forced into a feminization procedure the cost of a jet fighter, without being able to protest. Similarly, according to pop culturenews siteAkiba Blog, readers considered the premise "surreal", but still found it interesting. Kono Manga ga Sugoi! included the series in a feature on the history of LGBT manga as an example of a transgender manga with a strong social focus. The first volume of the series was among the highest selling manga of its debut week.
