Welcome to Black Tokyo! In a good demonstration of why the Japanese government doesn’t like surrogate births, a baby conceived of a Japanese father’s sperm and an unidentified donor’s egg and who was born in India in July, has been given a temporary one year visa to enter Japan with the father’s family. The complication comes with the fact that the man and his wife divorced before the baby was born and India does not allow adoption by single parents. Nonetheless, the family’s pleas prevailed and it looks like the …

Abduction Politics has written a great article on Taro Aso:  

As with most political systems, I’d imagine, Japan’s political elite have more than a slight dynastic nature. I plan to look at some of the family trees of Japan’s political figures over a series of articles. I will start with one of the most interesting: Taro Aso (????, Tarou Asou), Minister for Foreign Affairs since 31 October 2005, as well as a candidate for Koizumi’s replacement as Prime Minister.
Taro Aso is a politician born and bred. He is perhaps best known …

Prospective adopting parents who are current or former residents of Japan and are adopting children from countries that are signatories to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention) need to be aware that Japan does not have a child abuse registry.
The Hague Adoption Convention went into effect in the U.S. in April 2008.  Japan is not a signatory to the Hague Adoption Convention; however, U.S. citizens who are adopting children from Hague countries (including China and the Philippines) need a …