Photo/Illutration Satoshi Egura reads court documents on April 11 in Tokyo. (Saori Kuroda)

A court on April 21 ordered the Tokyo metropolitan government to help a man, who was switched at birth 67 years ago, find his biological parents.

Satoshi Egura, who was born at the now-defunct Tokyo Metropolitan Sumida Hospital in the capital’s Sumida Ward but was given to the wrong parents, filed the lawsuit seeking support from the Tokyo government after failing in his own search for his parents.

The Tokyo District Court’s ruling on April 21 noted that ensuring that a child is delivered to his or her parent is a fundamental issue in the parent-child relationship.

The ruling said it is reasonable to conclude that the metropolitan government has an obligation to take all possible measures in the event of a mix-up, and it ordered the government to cooperate in the investigation.

In an earlier lawsuit filed by Egura in 2004, the hospital was found to have switched newborns due to negligence, and the metropolitan government was ordered to pay 20 million yen ($140,500) in compensation to Egura.

Egura then asked the metropolitan government for cooperation in his search for his biological parents, but the government refused, citing privacy concerns.

He continued his own search but was unable to find the parents, so he filed a lawsuit three years ago, demanding help from the metropolitan government.

FELT OUT OF PLACE

From an early age, Egura said, he felt uncomfortable because he did not quite fit in with his family.

He was a very active boy, but his brother, who was three years younger than him, was withdrawn.

When the family watched TV, Egura would cry or laugh at scenes that did not elicit a similar response from any other family member.

At a banquet where relatives gathered, he was told, “You don’t look like anyone else in the family.”

The accumulation of such incidents increased his sense of alienation.

“I wanted to leave as soon as possible,” he recalled.

He left home at the age of 14 and moved from one live-in job to another. At the age of 20, he opened his own business.

When he was 46 years old, the woman he believed was his mother had a blood test done, which revealed that she was unlikely to be the biological mother of Egura.

A subsequent DNA test showed he was not related to any of the family members.

“I want to meet my birth parents and find out who they are,” he recalled thinking.

In 2004, he filed a lawsuit against the metropolitan government over the mix-up at birth.

After the Tokyo High Court upheld the district court’s order for the metropolitan government to pay him 20 million yen in compensation, Egura began his own search for his parents.

The only clues he had were the Sumida Ward hospital and his birthday.

ONE-MAN SEARCH

He browsed the basic resident registry of Sumida Ward and visited about 70 people whose birthdays were close to his.

Egura paid vendors several tens of thousands of yen for a list of names of people living in Tokyo.

He also filed an information disclosure request with Sumida Ward concerning the family registry reception book, which contains information about his birth certificate.

However, much of the information on the documents was blacked out, and nothing could be learned.

In 2021, he felt he had no choice but to file another lawsuit against the Tokyo government.

In the suit, he asked the metropolitan government to identify his biological parents, inform them of the mistake, and confirm whether or not they intended to contact him.

The metropolitan government urged the court to dismiss the lawsuit, saying, “If (the biological parents) have lived without feeling any discomfort, informing them of the fact would be a serious violation of their rights.”

Egura argued back: “I am not forcing them to meet me.”

He said he just wanted to know: “What kind of people are my biological parents? Do I have siblings?”

He also emphasized, “I think it is the simple right of those born into this world to know their roots.”

The man who had raised Egura died eight years ago, and his “mother” is now suffering from advanced dementia.

Egura thinks his biological parents must be very old, too.

“I want to see my true family, and I hope that a court decision will make that happen,” he said before the April 21 ruling.

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