Woman puts baby up for adoption after sperm donor allegedly lied about his ethnicity

A Japanese woman has filed a lawsuit against the biological father of her second child for 330 million yen, which equates to about $2.86 million, after she learned he lied about his identity. The father falsifying his identity led to her giving up the custody of the child. 

The Tokyo woman, who is in her 30s, was under the impression that she had met a successful Japanese man with an education from Kyoto University. According to Japanese media, the two had sexual intercourse 10 times in an effort to conceive a child.

The woman already had one child with her current husband, but after the couple discovered her husband carries a hereditary disorder that could be passed along, she chose to conceive with a donor. She apparently used social media to find the perfect candidate. 

In July 2019, the woman, who has been left unidentified in media, became pregnant. But not long after, she discovered that the man who fathered her child lied about his identity and is, in fact, a married Chinese man, and he did not attend the research university. She then decided to put her child up for adoption, and now, she is suing for fraud, claiming “emotional distress” caused by his lies. 

Sperm donation in Japan is mostly unregulated. Commercial artificial insemination is rare, and the procedure is limited to only heterosexual married couples.

“In Japan, there is no public system or legal system for sperm donation,” said the woman’s lawyer during a press conference on Tuesday. However, Mizuho Sasaki, a child welfare worker in the country, said the woman was “shallow” for “treat[ing] the child like an object.”