A couple have appealed to the Osaka High Court after a family court rejected their request earlier this month to register their twins born to an American surrogate mother as their children.
The couple said that the ruling by the family court in Hyogo Prefecture misinterpreted the facts and that adopting the babies, as recommended by the family court, would be difficult.
The husband and wife, both in their 50s, said they are asking the high court to nullify the family court's Aug. 13 ruling.
The couple took the case to the family court after a local government rejected a birth report they submitted in January to register the twins as their children.
The husband, whose name is being withheld to protect the couple's privacy, has said the family court dismissed the request on the grounds that his wife did not provide eggs or give birth to the twins. The court said this makes it "impossible" for her to be legally acknowledged as the mother, he said.
The surrogate mother gave birth to the twins in October 2002 in California after doctors performed in vitro fertilization using eggs from a separate American woman and the Japanese husband's sperm.