XG’s Cocona Comes Out As Transmasculine Non-Binary On Their Birthday, By Laura Sirikul, Forbes, December 6, 2025
| Quote: | | XG’s Cocona celebrated their 20th birthday with an announcement: they’re transmasculine, non-binary.
The rapper of the celebrated Japanese group, XG, came out on their Instagram, revealing they had top surgery earlier this year and are AFAB (Assigned Female At Birth) transmasculine non-binary. With the support of their family, friends, members, and the label, Cocona feels free to be who they truly are.
In the post, shared to their 3.2 million followers, the artist’s images proudly showcase their surgical scars. |
COCONA is one of the latest Japanese musical artists to come out as queer or LGBTQIA+, following longtime popular AFAB nonbinary Japanese singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada (Kingdom Hearts; Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc ending theme song "JANE DOE" with Kenshi Yonezu); Avu-chan, AMAB transgender genderfluid or nonbinary lead singer of Japanese rock band QUEEN BEES, who performed "Mephisto," the ending theme song for Oshi no Ko (2023); genderfluid or genderless enka AMAB singer Kiyoshi Hikawa, known as KIYOSHI when singing non-enka songs; and so on.
COCONA sorta reminds me of Setsu from the Japanese video game GNOSIA (2019) and its (2025-6) Japanese TV anime series adaptation. Both have "nonbinary" identities, both are AFAB (Assigned Female At Birth), and both have undergone chest removal surgeries. But COCONA is "transmasculine," while Setsu (minus the flat chest) appears and sounds "feminine."
Quoting myself on X...
| Quote: | | The Japanese terms they use in GNOSIA to describe Setsu and Raqio are hansei (汎性) and han (汎). ChatGPT and Grok say hansei mean pansexual or pansexuality, an attraction to individuals regardless of their sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
Google AI, on the other hand, says hansei, when used in gender identity and sexuality, is used in fictional works, citing the GNOSIA game and anime as examples, and does not usually appear in Japanese dictionaries. Here, hansei means pangender (or universal gender), genderless, etc.
Setsu was born female, or AFAB (assigned female at birth), while Raqio was born male, or AMAB (assigned male at birth). Setsu underwent surgery (e.g., breast removal) and transitioned from female to pangender. Raqio has not yet undergone surgery and still has a penis. |
Take this with a grain of salt.
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