Japanese father of 13 surrogate children veiled in mystery
TOKYO — A Japanese man who has won legal custody of 13 surrogate children in Thailand has remained virtually anonymous in the Japanese media.
Mitsutoki Shigeta, who was granted sole custody of his children by a Thai court on Tuesday, is the son of the founder of Japanese telecom and insurance company Hikari Tsushin. As a major shareholder, he earns millions of dollars a year in dividends.
But in Japan, he keeps an extremely low profile.
Aggressive reporting by Japanese tabloids after his surrogate babies were discovered in a Bangkok condominium in 2014 quickly faded, allegedly after defamation lawsuits and pressure were applied by his father’s company. Now he is only referred to in the Japanese-language media as an anonymous 28-year-old man.