Japanese woman recruits sperm donor from Twitter, discovers man not what he claimed to be

Since apparently no one in Japan is getting married, having kids, or even having sex — if you believe the media headlines — perhaps we should take note of this cautionary tale of a woman who wanted to produce offspring without the customary hassle of finding a willing or capable partner.

Starting a family is easy with a sperm donor, right?

But what if you don’t want to go through an expensive service or institution? Social media can help you out, right?

Well, that’s what one woman in her thirties thought, reports the Asahi.

She searched Twitter for potential sperm donors and found a man who claimed to be a graduate of Kyoto University, one of the most prestigious in Japan.

He was also of the same blood type as her husband — blood types are seen as telling signs of your personality in Japan — and this clinched the deal.

She got his sperm and duly became pregnant in summer 2019. She remained in contact with the man, though, and, as these things do, inevitably the truth leaked out. He was a graduate of a much less prestigious university in regional Japan and was even born in China. He was, at least, an employee of a major corporation and in his twenties.

The woman was by now five months pregnant and could not abort. She gave birth in February this year.

The article does not say if he was actually Chinese, which we presume she would have realized when she met him, nor why she was searching for a sperm donor when she was married (her husband is sterile? He doesn’t want kids? She is a widow?).

“I would never have accepted his sperm if he was honest about his background,” the woman said. “I believe there is a need for a law to regulate dishonest donors.”

OK, but perhaps you should then pursue donation through a regular service, not Twitter?

A decline in the number of certified donor services has apparently led to people to search social media and seek out sperm donations from private individuals.

Artificial insemination by donors is also not available in Japan to single women or sexual minorities. It can only be used by couples where the husband has been diagnosed as infertile.

Of course, if you want to check out the state of your sperm, regular readers will probably remember that Tenga offers an easy way to do that with its Loupe Sperm Viewer.