Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
March 5, 2018
Mystery cloaks Japanese dad
of 13 born from Thai surrogates
By Mari Yamaguchi
The Associated Press
OKYO
—
A
Japanese business-
man who won legal
custody of his 13 children
born from surrogates in
Thailand is virtually anon-
ymous in his home country.
Mitsutoki Shigeta, who
was granted sole custody
by a Thai court, is the son of
the founder of Japanese
telecom and insurance
company Hikari Tsushin.
As a major shareholder, he
earns millions of dollars a
year in dividends. But in
Japan, he keeps an
extremely low profile.
Aggressive tabloid re-
ports after the babies were
discovered in a Bangkok
condominium in 2014
quickly faded, allegedly
after defamation lawsuits
and pressure were applied
by his father’s company.
Japanese-language media
refer to him now as an
anonymous
28-year-old
man.
Information from the
court decision and doctors
and a fertility clinic has
done little to lift the veil of
mystery over Shigeta.
A Japanese lawyer who
reportedly
represented
Shigeta refused to discuss
the case, and officials at
Hikari Tsushin were not
available for comment.
The company started as
a business phone and office
equipment sales firm and
now is listed on the first
section of the Tokyo Stock
Exchange and has more
T
Cambodia’s ruling party claims
sweeping win in senate vote
By Sopheng Cheang
The Associated Press
HNOM PENH, Cambodia — The
ruling party of Cambodian Prime
Minister Hun Sen claimed a
sweeping win in elections for the country’s
senate, a victory that it assured itself by
eliminating any serious opposition from
the contest.
Sok Eysan, a spokesman for the
Cambodian People’s Party, said it won a
landslide victory. Privately, the party
claimed to have won all 58 of the seats that
were voted on by the country’s 11,572
commune councillors.
Two additional senators are appointed
by the National Assembly and another two
by King Norodom Sihamoni.
The vote was seen as a foretaste of a
scheduled July general election for the
National Assembly that is also expected to
affirm Hun Sen’s rule.
The only opposition party in parliament,
the Cambodia National Rescue Party, was
dissolved in November after aggressive
legal challenges by the government were
sustained by the politicized courts.
Government supporters then replaced
the party’s members of parliament and its
commune councillors — the voters in the
polls.
Hun Sen has been in power for three
decades, and while maintaining a frame-
work of democracy, tolerates little opposi-
tion. His grip seemed shaken by 2013’s
general election, when the Cambodia
National Rescue Party mounted a strong
challenge, winning 55 seats in the
National Assembly and leaving Hun Sen’s
party with 68.
The opposition party also made a strong
showing in last year’s commune council
elections, capturing 5,007 of the 11,572
councillor positions.
After last year’s commune council
P
elections, Hun Sen’s ruling party then
stepped up its steady offensive against
critics and opponents. Media outlets seen
as critical of the government were forced to
shut down and most senior members of the
Cambodia National Rescue Party fled the
country.
“Without the presence of the main oppo-
sition that has 55 (members of parliament)
and 5,007 commune councillors represent-
ing the will of the people, there will be no
real free and fair competition as deter-
mined by the principles of free, fair, and
inclusive elections,” said a pre-election
statement on the senate election from the
Cambodia National Rescue Party,
e-mailed by Mu Sochua, its former deputy
president, now in exile.
“We urge the United Nations and the
international community to denounce the
holding of the senate election … and to
take immediate and stringent measures
including sanctions as a signal that it will
not condone dictatorship,” it said.
The United States and Germany have
banned
issuing
visas
to
certain
Cambodian
officials
considered
responsible for the deterioration of
democracy. Rights groups have also been
highly critical.
“Unfortunately, the Cambodian senate
will continue to stand as yet another sad
reminder of Cambodia’s unmitigated
descent into outright dictatorship,” said
Charles Santiago, a member of the Malay-
sian parliament and chairman of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) parliamentarians for Human
Rights, comprising Southeast Asian
lawmakers.
Only three small parties with no
national followings ran candidates against
the ruling party for seats in the senate,
which has no significant decision-making
powers.
2017 Exemplary Community Volunteer Award Recipient:
Chinese American Citizens Alliance
AR Photo/Jan Landis
EXPECTED OUTCOME. A Cambodian woman turns in a ballot for the senate election at Takhmau polling
station in Kandal province, southeast of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The ruling party of Cambodian Prime Minister
Hun Sen claimed a sweeping win in elections for the country’s senate, a victory that it assured itself by eliminat-
ing any serious opposition. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)
SURROGACY SCANDAL. Members of the media attend a press
briefing at which Thai police displayed projected pictures of surrogate ba-
bies born to a Japanese man at the center of a surrogacy scandal during a
press conference at police headquarters in Chonburi, Thailand, in this file
photo. The Japanese father of the surrogate babies, Mitsutoki Shigeta, is
the son of the founder of Japanese telecom and insurance company Hikari
Tsushin. As a major shareholder, he earns millions of dollars a year in div-
idends. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)
than 180 subsidiaries. Shi- clinic in Thailand that
geta is the oldest of founder recruited some of the
Yasumitsu Shigeta’s three babies’ surrogate mothers,
sons and has businesses in told The AP in 2014 that
Thailand and Cambodia, Shigeta told her “he
where he arranged the wanted 10 to 15 babies a
surrogate pregnancies.
year and that he wanted to
Japanese
tabloids continue the baby-making
reported in 2014 that process until he’s dead.”
Shigeta said he wanted to She said Shigeta also told
produce 100 to 1,000 her that he wanted to run
children and that if he were in an election and win by
successful it would cost using his big family for
millions of dollars. He was voting.
seeking
to
purchase
Shigeta’s case, along
equipment to freeze and with
several
others,
preserve his “high-quality” prompted Thailand to ban
sperm at home to allow him commercial surrogacy for
to keep producing children foreign clients. That law
even in old age, according sent foreigners seeking
to Japanese reports.
surrogate
mothers
to
Thai authorities have Cambodia, which also later
ruled out human traffick- banned it.
ing and other criminal
Japanese tabloids have
motives.
reported that Shigeta’s
Mariam Kukunashvili, parents
were
spotted
founder of the New Light
Continued on page 13
The Chinese American Citizens Alliance (C.A.C.A.) was founded in 1895 in San
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Chinese-American empowerment and community service. The Portland chapter — which
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The recognition banquet will be held Thursday,
April 26, 2018 at southeast Portland’s Wong’s King Seafood Restaurant.
Nomination forms and award guidelines are available
for download at <www.ARFoundation.net>.
The nomination deadline is Thursday, April 4, 2018 at 5:00pm.
The Asian Reporter Foundation’s 20th
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Cultural entertainment
Exemplary Community Volunteer Awards
Ethnic dinner
College Scholarship Awards
Silent auction