Hospital reveals 2nd confidential birth in Japan

Jiji Press

12:50 JST, May 12, 2022

KUMAMOTO (Jiji Press) — A woman has given birth to a baby anonymously in the second case of so-called confidential birth in Japan, Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto Prefecture said Wednesday.

The woman from outside the prefecture delivered the baby last month using the hospital’s confidential birth system, which allows women to disclose their identity only to hospital staff in giving birth.

The woman, who has already left the hospital, wished to use the confidential birth system, according to the hospital in Kumamoto City. She left copies of her My Number social security identification card and health insurance card at the hospital. The baby is now under the care of the hospital. The mother is considering putting the baby up for adoption.

“It might be a harsh thing to say, but she will unlikely be able to raise the baby by herself,” hospital chief Takeshi Hasuda told a press conference.

In December 2019, Jikei Hospital announced the introduction of the confidential birth system to help encourage women not to give birth alone at home or other places. Children born under the arrangement will gain the right to know details about their birth in the future.

Last December, a teenager delivered a baby using the system in the first case of confidential birth in the country.

In February this year, the Justice Ministry’s Kumamoto District Legal Affairs Bureau said that this baby can be put on a family register under the authority of a local administrative leader even without the submission of a birth report to a municipal office.

Kumamoto Mayor Kazufumi Onishi has expressed his readiness to put the baby on the city’s family register using his authority.