Less than Family: Surrogate Birth and Legal Parent-Child Relationships in Japan

Abstract

Japan  has  no  legislation  regulating  artificial  reproductive  technology.  In  surrogate  birth, social parents may only register a legal relationship with the child in the Japanese  family  register,  the  koseki,  using  the  three  current  categories  of  parent-child  relationship in Japanese family law: natural, ordinary adoption and special adoption.  In 2007, Japan’s Supreme Court dashed the hopes of  Japanese actress Aki Mukai and  her husband, former pro-wrestler Nobuhiko Takada, of registering twins born through  surrogacy as their natural children. The Supreme Court’s decision means that the only  option for social parents of children born through  surrogate birth to establish a legal  parent-child  relationship  is  to  adopt  the  child  under  the  laws  governing  special  and  ordinary adoption in Japan. However, ordinary adoptive and special adoptive children  have  inferior  legal  rights compared to  natural  children,  including in  relation  to  their  registration in the  koseki and their right to Japanese nationality. Analysing Japanese  law on parenthood and the Supreme Court’s decision in Mukai’s case using critiques of  the  nuclear  family  ideology  reveals  that  Japanese  law  determines  the  existence  of  a  legal parent-child relationship by birth for the mother and marriage to the birth mother  for the father, reinforcing the nuclear family ideology. While parent-child relationships  based on contract are possible in Japan, these relationships do not have the same legal  and social character as parent-child relationships  based on blood. The value attached  to  blood  relationships  in  Japanese  law  is  reflected in  society.  Members  of  Japanese  society make negative value judgments about the character of adopted children, which  can  lead  to  stigma  and  discrimination  against  adopted  children.  The  koseki registers  adopted and natural children differently, and thus promotes social discrimination based  on these differences. Surrogate birth children who  are adopted are potentially exposed  to  the  same  social  stigma  and  discrimination  as  adopted  children,  even  if  they  are  related to their social parents genetically. This article critiques assumptions based on  the modern family ideology underlying Japanese law  and evaluates the socio-legal role  of the  koseki in causing surrogate birth children to suffer discrimination and exclusion  in  Japan.  The  article  concludes  that  establishing  legal  parent-child  relationships  in  surrogate birth only by adoption is not in the best interests of surrogate birth children,  or their birth and social parents. The article aims to stimulate consideration in other  countries about the assumptions underlying the law  on parent-child relationships and  about how adoption law affects surrogate birth children.