(Update) Court Orders Tokyo to Find Birth Parents of Man Switched as Newborn
Tokyo, April 21 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo District Court on Monday ordered the Tokyo metropolitan government to track down the birth parents of a 67-year-old man who was accidentally switched as a baby at a now-closed maternity hospital run by the metropolitan government.
Presiding judge Naoya Hirai said that the metropolitan government has a "duty to investigate the biological parents" of the plaintiff, Satoshi Egura.
The court recognized that the right to know about one's birth, while not codified in Japan, is part of the legal interests ensured under Article 13 of the Constitution, and that the right is directly protected under the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Japan has ratified.
It is the first time that a Japanese court has issued such a ruling, according to the plaintiff's attorney.
The court also ordered the Tokyo government to search for the man Egura was switched with and his possible parents, using the family registry system in the Japanese capital's Sumida Ward, where the maternity hospital was located, and to seek their cooperation in DNA tests.
(2025/04/21-20:09)
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