Marriage and childbirth go hand in hand in Japan, perhaps more so than in many other developed countries, but for Rei Kakyoin, a self-identified asexual, the former was never an option.
Kakyoin, an unmarried manga artist living in the Kanto region who prefers to be identified by a pen name, managed to realize a dream of having a child through artificial insemination, despite being from a country where doctors are generally prohibited from assisting with sperm donations for commercial purposes.
After choosing the father from a sperm bank in the United States, Kakyoin, 35, gave birth to a girl in the fall of 2016.