Models of Gender-Affirming Care in Asia: a comparative documentary policy analysis of formal requirements, provision and cost in seven health systems

A pre-registered comparative documentary policy analysis of what the health systems of South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore formally require and provide for gender-affirming hormone therapy and surgery. Requirements are coded by the level that imposes them (legal/regulatory, professional, payer, institutional). Non-English sources are extracted in the original languages by native-language researchers and English-language sources by the author; English-language sources are verified in full, and non-English sources by a blind sample, a full check of key fields and pathway steps, and a triggered random check of the rest. The data are published as an open, versioned, source-linked dataset. The study is descriptive: it makes no recommendation between models, and it computes no ranking or composite score.