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Japan hints at visa for India surrogate baby

TOKYO: Japan’s justice minister hinted Friday that authorities were ready to issue a visa for a baby girl in legal limbo who was born to an Indian surrogate mother from a Japanese father.

The child’s fate was thrown into confusion when the Japanese couple divorced during the Indian woman’s pregnancy. “I would like to handle the case in the direction of granting a visa,” Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka, who oversees Japan’s immigration policy, told reporters. “Whether to permit surrogate pregnancy is a matter to be discussed by respective institutions,” he said, but added: “The ministry will study the possibilities under the law out of consideration for the child’s future.”

The case has triggered national headlines in India with calls to better regulate the country’s booming surrogacy business. Surrogacy is a controversial issue in Japan. The law does not prohibit it but the professional society of obstetricians and gynaecologists bans it, citing in part the possibility for custody battles. The girl, Manji Yamada, was born last month after eggs from an unknown donor were fertilised using the sperm of Ikufumi Yamada, 45, and implanted into the Indian woman’s womb.

But Yamada then divorced with his wife, who no longer wants the baby. India does not allow single fathers to adopt baby girls and has complicated rules in general for foreigners wishing to adopt. The baby is currently being looked after at a hospital in the western city of Jaipur by her grandmother and friends of Yamada, who returned to Japan for professional reasons. afp

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