Despite opposition from authorities as well as apathy in society, a hospital president in southwestern Japan is continuing to fight for the right for women with unintended pregnancies to be allowed to give birth anonymously.
In December 2019, Takeshi Hasuda's Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto became the first facility in Japan to offer so-called confidential births. But he has since been told by local authorities twice that it is not clear whether such a system is legally allowed in Japan.
It is not the first time his hospital has tested the boundaries of how to help women with unintended pregnancies — Hasuda's father Taiji opened Japan's first baby hatch for unwanted newborns in 2007 when he was running the hospital. Stirring controversy at the time, it remains Japan's only baby hatch.