Celebrity's surrogate children denied Japanese citizenship

TV personality Aki Mukai and her pro-wrestler husband Nobuhiko Takada conceived male twins through an American surrogate mother in November 2003. The boys were born in Nevada and Mukai attempted to register them as Japanese citizens in Shinagawa Ward in Tokyo last year.
Shinagawa Ward refused Mukai's application as she was not recognised as the true mother of the children. Current legislation states that a woman must give birth to a child herself to be the legal mother.
Mukai filed a complaint and a Tokyo High Court ruled in her favour last September, recognising the blood relationship to the now three-year-old boys and requesting registration for the sake of their welfare. Shinagawa Ward appealed this decision and the Supreme Court ruled in the Ward's favour on March 23 this year, meaning that the twins will not be able to receive Japanese citizenship.
Mukai originally aborted a pregnancy and undertook a hysterectomy after being diagnosed with uterine cancer while she was pregnant. Since that time she had made three attempts at a surrogate birth in the US via in vitro fertilisation with her own ova and her husband's sperm; the third attempt proving successful.