dependent or receiving inheritance', said Justice Ryoji Nakagawa, who heard the appeal." In 2004, Seiko Noda, a member of parliament for the Liberal Democratic Party, published a book entitled 'Watashi Wa Umitai' (I Want To Give Birth) detailing her unsuccessful treatments and the social stigma that accompanies infertile women in Japan. Seven years later, she sought an American egg donor and made headlines for giving birth at age 50. In 2015, the ethics committee of the Japanese Institution for Standardising Assisted Reproductive Technology approved the country's first donations of eggs from women unrelated to the recipients. (Before then, 24 babies had been born through egg donation in Japan, but all the donors were either relatives or friends of the recipients.) It must be noted that "any children born as a result of the egg donation must be notified of this fact before they enter elementary school. When they reach the age of 15, they may find out the identity of the donors, if they choose to. Children born in Japan as a result of a sperm donation are currently unable to learn the identity of the donor." In 2019, a married couple wanted to expand their family but discovered that the husband had a hereditary genetic condition. However, "preimplantation genetic diagnosis, where embryos are created via IVF and then tested for the genetic condition, is strictly regulated in Japan and difficult to access." At that time there were also no regulated sperm banks in Japan, the first, the Mirai Life Research Institute (みらい生命研究所) in Saitama Prefecture's Koshigaya City, not being established until July 2021. "Demand for Japanese sperm outstrips supply and only 12 clinics in Japan perform artificial insemination--“non-spousal artificial insemination by donor (AID),” known in Japanese as jinko jyusei (人工授精)—with donor sperm." Furthermore, official sperm donation in Japan is limited to legally married couples or hoteki fufu (法的夫婦); "single women (officially called “elective single mothers” or sentakuteki shinguru maza (選択的シングルマザー)), same-sex couples, and de facto married couples of female-to-male (FTM) trans persons who do not meet the conditions for gender reassignment in the family register are currently excluded from receiving sperm donation." Therefore Japanese couples have to choose between "importing sperm from international sperm banks, which is expensive, or making informal arrangements with private donors outside clinic settings." The latter arrangement is what the wife entered with a man whom she later claimed lied about his identity and credentials.