Paternity of child born from transgender man's egg not recognized; suit filed in Tokyo Family Court

On the 18th, a lawsuit was filed at the Tokyo Family Court seeking recognition of the paternity of a child born from the egg of a transgender man. She submitted a request to the local government requesting that the man be her father in the family register, but the request was not accepted because there was "no biological father-son relationship."

According to the complaint and other documents, a woman in her 40s living in Tokyo gave birth in November 2024 using eggs collected by her transgender male partner at the time before gender reassignment surgery and sperm provided by a donor. In February 2015, she married a man who changed her gender on her family register, and submitted a notification of recognition of the child, but the application was not accepted.

The woman argued, ``There is no problem if the man who actually donated the eggs becomes the father.'' The man also complained that it was against the welfare of the child that the child was not recognized even though he wanted to be recognized.

Lawyer Shun Nakaoka, who represented the child, said that the child was born from a man's egg, saying, ``The blood relationship is clear.This clearly shows the current situation where the rights of sexual minorities are not guaranteed at all.''