I'm very surprised that nowhere in the four pages of discussion has anyone brought up Alfred Kinsey and the concept of sexuality and gender as on a continuum. Rarely is
anyone either 100% gay or straight or feel 100% like a male or female in a social context. It's like saying that you can only be 100% autistic or 100% not autistic. There's a spectrum. Labels like "transgender" ignore the continuum, because they imply that you fall under some "other" category. There is no "other" category in a continuum. Hence, there is no "normal," only "common."
Plus, I mean...do we really need the word "transgender?" Society shapes gender, so there is no one "true" gender. "Intersex," "hermaphrodite," etc. are different in that they are biological abnormalities and may cause physical issues (sometimes they don't). And here we get into the argument that psychological "deviations," "abnormalities," and "illnesses" are all made up for the sake of categorization and that there are only biological "abnormalities." It's true that it's easier for humans to categorize people into different categories so as to make sense of the world easier. If I can give you a label my mind feels more at ease...
As for Hide, I think it's great that he decided to do what was necessary to make him feel more comfortable in his own skin. I think she's beautiful, and I don't even know what people are talking about when they say she still looks like a man. She looks like a model to me.
I'm glad she decided to come out about it, too, because Japan is so closet about these types of things (so are many other countries, the U.S. included).