Two family courts were divided in their responses last year to an arbitration request over the paternity of a child whose registration has been rejected by a local government due to a controversial provision in the Civil Code, sources said Sunday.
The Tokyo Family Court had pressed a 32-year-old woman and her baby boy to withdraw their arbitration request to have the woman's current husband recognized as the infant's father, while the Yokohama Family Court recognized the man as the father, the sources said.
The differing outcomes show the lack of consistency in the family courts' handling of cases involving the provision, which says a child born within 300 days from the date of dissolution or cancellation of a marriage is deemed to have been conceived during the time the couple were married.