Japanese dad wins ‘baby factory’ case
The Central Juvenile and Family Court yesterday allowed a 28-year-old Japanese man to take home 13 children born to surrogate women in Thailand, granting him sole parental custody.
The court ruled that Mitsutoki Shigeta is the biological father of the children, is able to raise them and is not connected to human trafficking.
Mr Shigeta hired nine Thai women to be surrogate mothers in 2013.
Donated eggs were fertilised with Mr Shigeta’s own sperm using assisted reproductive technology before they were later transferred to the surrogate mothers’ uteruses.
The women gave birth in 2014 — before the new law restricting the use of assisted technology in childbirth was enacted on July 30, 2015 — which allowed him to seek parental rights to the 13 children.
The new law now requires that surrogate mothers be related to one of the prospective parents.
DNA tests confirmed Mr Shigeta was the biological father, and the court found that he had taken good care of the infants before Ministry of Social Development and Human Security officials took them to care facilities in Nonthaburi and Chiang Mai provinces.
Mr Shigeta also had representatives regularly visit the children at the facilities, the court said, adding he had also made plans for the children’s education and future wellbeing, including nannies and nurses at a residence in Tokyo.
He had also opened trust funds for the 13 children in Singapore, the court found, and had successfully raised other surrogate children in Japan and Cambodia, arranging Japanese citizenship for all of them.
The court said Mr Shigeta was the son of a founder and chairman of a well-known listed company in Japan and owned several companies himself — including one that paid him more than 100 million baht in annual dividends — and had sufficient wealth to raise all 13 children.
The director-general of the Department of Children and Youth did not oppose his sole parental rights, even though Mr Shigeta is unmarried.
The court said it was in the best interests of all 13 children, that they be in the custody of their biological father.
“The father had no record of being morally offensive,” the ruling said.
“He, therefore, deserves to win sole custody of all 13 children ... while those surrogate mothers hired by their father weren’t biologically related to the children and the women had all signed consent forms to give up their maternal custody rights,” said the ruling.
The so-called “baby factory” case made headlines in early August 2014 when nine babies were found at a condominium in Bangkok’s Bang Kapi district, along with seven nannies and a pregnant Thai woman who later gave birth prematurely to a baby girl.
Mr Shigeta fled the country about the same time, but visited Thailand 65 times between 2012 to 2014 — and on several occasions was spotted taking babies out of the country.
Kong Suriyamonthol, Mr Shigeta’s lawyer, said the process of removing the children, now four years old, from the state facilities would be undertaken gradually, since the children had already become familiar with staff there.
He added that Mr Shigeta had grown up within an extended family, so he loved being surrounded by large numbers of children.
He would later decide whether the children would be raised in Japan or Cambodia, the lawyer said. Its not clear how many children Mr Shigeta has in total.