Aki Mukai, a television personality, and her husband Nobuhiko Takada, 44, had appealed a November 2005 Tokyo Family Court ruling that found in favor of a local government decision to reject their registration request.

Japanese law presumes that the woman who gives birth to a child is its mother.

In his ruling on Sept. 29, Tokyo High Court Judge Toshifumi Minami said that Mukai and Takada had been recognized as the boys' parents in Nevada, where they were born, and that for the children's welfare they should be recognized as such in Japan as well.

The Japan Times Weekly: Oct. 7, 2006
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