A Japanese millionaire has been awarded legal custody to 13 children he fathered through surrogate mothers in Thailand.
Mitsutoki Shigeta, thought to be 27 years old, caused a ‘baby factory’ scandal in 2014 after Thai police found nine infants living with their nannies in an upmarket Bangkok apartment.
A DNA test found that Shigeta was the biological father of the nine children, as well as four more babies born by surrogates in Thailand.
Large brood: Nannies are seen holding nine of Mr Shigeta’s 13 children born in Thailand through surrogacy after a police raid at a flat in Bangkok in August 2014
The murky case threw the spotlight on Thailand’s then unregulated rent-a-womb industry, and helped push authorities to bar foreigners from paying for Thai surrogates in 2015.
Shigeta, the son of a Japanese tycoon, left the country in the wake of the scandal three-and-a-half-years ago.
He later sued Thailand’s Ministry of Social Development and Human Security for custody of the children.
‘For the happiness and opportunities which the 13 children will receive from their biological father, who does not have a history of bad behaviour, the court rules that all 13 born from surrogacy to be legal children of the plaintiff,’ Bangkok’s Central Juvenile Court said in a statement.
Baby daddy: Mitsutoki Shigeta, a Japanese millionaire thought to be 27 years old, was found to be the father of 13 children after a DNA test was carried out
Mitsutoki Shigeta has been identified as the man in this photo by local media
Kong Suriyamontol, the Thai lawyer for Japanese national Mitsutoki Shigeta, speaks to the press after his client was granted paternity rights to his 13 children fathered through Thai surrogate mothers
Shigeta, who did not attend the trial in person, was deemed the ‘sole parent’ of the children after the Thai surrogates had signed away their rights, the court said.
As he comes from a wealthy family, he has ample money and has prepared nurses and nannies to care for the children in Japan, the ruling stated.
Shigeta’s lawyer said he would contact the Social Welfare Ministry, who has taken care of the children since the scandal broke in 2014, about the next steps in transferring them from state custody.
Shigeta hired the Thai surrogates before the kingdom banned the lucrative trade in 2015, following a string of scandals and custody tussles.
Surrogacy agencies quickly migrated to neighbouring Cambodia, who followed suit and barred the industry in 2016.
In recent months there have been signs the industry has shifted to Laos, an opaque communist country with no restrictions on surrogacy.
Some surrogacy agencies are now offering services 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.