TOKYO – Yuri’s daughter sat in her lap, swirling a lollipop. Nearby, parents kneeled on a foam mat and played with their babies. They had come together through Rainbow Family, a support group for LGBTQ+ people raising children in Japan.
Yuri explained that, for her, the only safe way to have a baby was to lie.
“We don’t have the same rights, Yuri said. “It’s really unfair.”
Every parent interviewed in this article, including Yuri, requested to be identified only by first name or initial in order to protect their identities.
In Japan, medical guidelines strictly limit fertility treatments to couples in legal or common law marriages. However, as the only G7 nation that does not recognize same-sex marriage, Japan effectively bars the queer community from using Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) – this includes any laboratory procedure with human eggs, sperm or embryos.
So, Yuri lied. She entered a clinic with a male friend, and they pretended to be partners; this allowed her to use in vitro fertilization (IVF) with his sperm and pay for it with public health insurance, which – following a policy to combat Japan’s record low birth rate – pays for 70%.
“If I can use insurance or not, it really matters, so I wanted to do it,” Yuri said. “It made me feel a little bit guilty.”
The Japanese Supreme Court is expected to make a decision next year on the constitutionality of banning same-sex marriage. Meanwhile, exclusion from ART pushes hopeful parents to complicated alternatives, such as anonymous online sperm donation; international reproductive tourism; and a network of clinics secretly offering fertility care.
Unregulated and unaccredited
“We were helped by two hospitals: the first one was a clinic that provided infertility treatment,” said M, who held the hand of N, her partner of 10 years. “The clinic’s guidelines forbade them from going ahead with the treatment.”
Both women gave birth last year. After being turned away from the first clinic, a nonprofit called Kodomap, whose mission is to make LGBTQ+ parenthood more accessible, referred them to a hospital willing to help.
The Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology (JSOG) requires facilities offering ART to follow their guidelines. JSOG rules are not law, but breaking them risks losing the ability to bill insurance for procedures, losing accreditation and risking reputational harm.
M and N are among the hundreds of women who used Cryos International, a sperm bank in Denmark, to have children in Japan.
Hiromi Ito, who managed Japanese operations for Cryos International, is an advocate with Kodomap. She said there are at least 13 unregistered clinics providing either IVF or artificial insemination without proper certification, and of those, only five will treat same-sex couples.
“Some of those clinics are trying to make money because then you can have more patients,” Ito said.
The cost of IVF with international sperm depends on many factors. Ito provided an example of expenses totaling about $8,700 for only one round of IVF, which is over a quarter of Japan’s median income.
We had to overcome a lot of difficulties, but that all seems a small thing compared to the joy we feel,” M said. “It’s wonderful to spend every day with a healthy child.”
Rushed pregnancies
Cryos International has a branch in the U.S., with sperm banks in Florida, North Carolina and Texas. N and M found a donor for their children through a U.S. branch.
They specifically selected a donor with dark hair, N said, to ensure the babies would look as “Japanese as possible,” and prevent discrimination. They chose to use a donor from Cryos, instead of a friend, out of anxiety.
The risks for using a Japanese donor include the potential for him to claim parental rights under Japan’s family registry system. There was also the threat of future prosecution. Last year, the proposed Specified Assisted Reproductive Medicine Bill threatened to formally criminalize surrogacy and donor-assisted reproduction for unmarried parents – even if they went abroad. The punishment would include up to two years of jail time.
While the legislation was not enacted, the mere proposal is forcing some families to hurry.
“We received donations from the same donor and became pregnant about three months apart,” M said. “If we had more time, we would’ve preferred to have the children a bit farther apart.”
Yudai Kono, a lawyer specializing in reproductive rights at Kinoe Legal Law Office, said in an email that he believes there is a strong possibility of similar bills being introduced in the future. He explained that the bill is likely modeled after Japan’s Organ Transplant Act.
“By applying a framework designed to prohibit organ trafficking and penalize transactions abroad, the drafters sought enforcement at any cost, effectively treating ART through the same lens as organ smuggling,” he said.
Formally criminalizing fertility access could also drive prospective parents to more dangerous options, like private online sperm donation, which, according to Kono, exposes women to potential assault and infection.
“It is an undeniable fact that Japan lags far behind the United States and other developed nations, resulting in restricted options for family formation for non-traditional couples,” he said.
Reproductive tourism in America
In 2020, Japanese citizens accounted for nearly 10% of the U.S.’s international fertility patients, according to the Reproductive Biomedicine and Society journal. Since then, after Japan expanded health insurance to cover fertility care, ART has surged; by 2023, 1 in 8 babies born in Japan were born via IVF.
JBaby, based in Los Angeles, is the largest provider of Japanese egg donors in the world. It also provides surrogacy, which is prohibited by JSOG completely. JBaby founder Michael Lacoe said finding LGBTQ+ clients in Japan is becoming increasingly difficult.
Lacoe started the company with now husband Kenji Saito in 2012 after struggling to find an egg donor for their own children. Lacoe said the company has helped numerous single parents and around 15 same-sex couples.
“Our gay intended parents are so grateful to have families and have these children, and of course, it is deeply meaningful to us on a personal level, but in the eyes of the world, the Japanese society and law, they’re invisible,” Lacoe said.
Despite Lacoe seeing significant interest among couples when they travel to Japan, that interest fails to become business. He attributes this to the high cost of surrogacy, the decreasing value of the yen and the legal challenges of being a gay parent.
Adult adoption
In Japan, two people of the same sex cannot legally be parents to the same child. Therefore, N is the legal mother of her partner, M.
A common practice among same-sex couples is for the older partner to adopt the younger one. This allows the family to all be legally related. It also ensures that, if one parent dies, the other is able to keep custody of both children and inherit any property. However, this arrangement does not replace parental rights.
“I feel both sad and angry that families have ended up in this situation, but there is very little we as individuals can do to change the legal system, and it would take time, ” N said. “So, to be honest, I think we have to accept the current system to protect our family.”
P is also the legal father of his partner, and they face similar struggles as M and N. They are fathers to two boys born via surrogacy in Colombia, a country they chose for many reasons, including lower costs and a medical system they trusted.
“I hope that other means, such as adoption, become possible for LGBTQ+ people,” P said. “I don’t necessarily want to promote surrogacy, because it still comes with the risk to the surrogate mother, so I hope there will be many choices.”
Fatherhood was P’s lifelong dream, but the journey was difficult. He recalled how the Japanese doctor who extracted his sperm called the idea of two men raising a child “pitiful.” He also said limitations of special adoption are “upsetting:” because each man is the legal parent of only one child, they are unable to sign medical paperwork or apply for government subsidies on behalf of both boys.
While P hopes for significant legal reform, he is grateful to be a father. “Once they were born, I felt that, finally, I’m satisfied with my life,” he said.
Fighting for change
For 16 years, Rainbow Family has been supporting diverse families, but the nonprofit is also advocating for change, which many believe must start with marriage equality.
“It’s a shame that Japan is the only G7 country that does not recognize same-sex marriage or civil partnerships,” said Rainbow Family founder Haru Ono. “In this regard, I would like other countries to know that there are LGBTQ+ people in Japan who are raising children in the same way, and I think there is a need for legal reform.”
Ono, in addition to being a mother in a same-sex relationship, is a plaintiff in a marriage equality lawsuit that Japan’s Supreme Court is expected to decide on in early 2027. She said that because Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is opposed to LGBTQ+ rights, she is worried it will be more difficult for same-sex marriage to become legal.
“Every person, including, LGBTQ+ people, we are all people, all humans,” Ono said. “So, everyone should have the opportunity to have children and have a family.”
Correction, May 1, 2026 10:01 am: An earlier version of this story incorrectly implied that Hiromi Ito was still an employee at Cryos International. She is a former employee. The story and a photo caption have been corrected.
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