A wealthy Japanese man was yesterday granted “sole parent” rights to 13 children he fathered through Thai surrogate mothers, in a court ruling that paves the way for him to take them to Japan.
Mitsutoki Shigeta, 28, became the center of a “baby factory” scandal in 2014 after Thai police found a plush Bangkok apartment packed with infants under the care of 24-hour nannies.
A probe later found he had fathered 19 children in total, 13 surrogate babies living in Thailand and six living in Cambodia and Japan, an official from the Thai Department of Social Development and Welfare said.
Photo: AFP
Four of the six children living in Cambodia and Japan were from Thai surrogates.
Shigeta’s bizarre case threw a spotlight on the kingdom’s unregulated rent-a-womb industry, prompting authorities to bar foreigners in 2015 from paying for Thai surrogates.
Shigeta, reportedly the son of a Japanese information technology tycoon, left the country in the wake of the scandal and has never directly explained why he fathered so many children.
However, he later took the Thai Ministry of Social Development and Human Security to court to seek custody of the children.
A Bangkok court yesterday granted him legal rights to take the children, saying he had ample money to care for them and had prepared nurses and nannies at a safe residence in Japan.
“For the happiness and opportunities the 13 children will receive from their biological father — who does not have a history of bad behavior — the court rules them to be the plaintiff’s legal children,” the Central Juvenile Court said in a statement which did not mention Shigeta by name for privacy reasons.
Shigeta, who did not attend the trial, was deemed “sole parent” of the children after the Thai surrogates had signed away their rights, the court added.
His lawyer, Kong Suriyamontol, said he would contact Thai authorities about the next steps to transfer the children from state custody, adding that the timeline would depend on the “readiness” of the youngsters — most of whom are aged around four.
Thai officials had visited Shigeta’s homes in Japan as well as in Cambodia and deemed the children would be able to adapt to new surroundings.
“The foster homes will seek my authorization to release the children to their father’s custody... It won’t take more than 10 days,” department official Vitat Tachaboon told reporters.
Shigeta’s mother has also been visiting the children in Thailand and “they have got used to her,” he added.
Shigeta hired the Thai surrogates before the ban on foreigners.
Police said he paid them between US$9,300 and US$12,500 each.
After Thailand clamped down on the trade surrogacy agencies quickly migrated to Cambodia, which followed suit and barred the industry in 2016.
In the past few months there have been signs the business is growing in Laos, an opaque communist country with no restrictions on surrogacy.
Some surrogacy agencies are now offering to carry out the embryo transfer in Laos and then provide pregnancy care for the surrogate in Thailand, a wealthier country with vastly superior medical facilities.
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
’DISTORTION’: Beijing’s assertion that the US agreed with its position on Taiwan is a recurring tactic it uses to falsely reinforce its sovereignty claims, MOFA said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said Chinese state media deliberately distorted Taiwan’s sovereign status, following reports that US President Donald Trump agreed to uphold the “one China” policy in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). During the more than one-hour-long call, Xi urged Trump to retreat from trade measures that roiled the global economy and cautioned him against threatening steps on Taiwan, a Chinese government summary of the call said. China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying that the US should handle the Taiwan issue cautiously and avoid the two countries being drawn into dangerous
RSS