Japanese lorry driver switched at birth spends 60 years in poverty before winning RM1m in court-ordered compensation.
A Japanese lorry driver who spent decades struggling in poverty discovered he had been switched at birth with a baby from a wealthy family — a shocking mistake that led to a court ordering the hospital responsible to pay him 38 million yen (approx. RM1.05 million) in compensation.
The 2013 case, involving Tokyo’s San-ikukai Hospital, has resurfaced online following several recent Chinese stories of children who were separated from their biological parents and later reunited with their affluent families.
The truth emerged six decades after the mix-up, when the rich family’s younger sons grew suspicious of their elder brother’s treatment of their father, South China Morning Post reported.
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After their mother’s death, the elder brother reportedly withheld their father’s share of her inheritance under the pretext of caring for him, only to later send him to a nursing home.
The younger brothers began questioning their elder sibling’s appearance and recalled that their late mother once mentioned his clothes had changed after a nurse bathed him in hospital.
Acting on their doubts, they secretly collected a cigarette butt he discarded and sent it for a DNA test in 2009 — which revealed he was not biologically related to them.
Hospital records later helped them locate the man who had been switched with their brother — a lorry driver born just 13 minutes earlier.
Unlike his biological siblings, he had grown up in hardship, losing his adoptive father at the age of two and living in a home without electrical appliances.
He worked part-time jobs to finish secondary school and was often told he looked nothing like his parents.
Meanwhile, the man who had unknowingly taken his place led a privileged life, receiving higher education and becoming a company boss, while his three younger brothers also rose to executive positions.
By the time the lorry driver learned the truth, both his biological parents had passed away.
Judge Masatoshi Miyasaka, who presided over the case, said the court supported the driver’s claims because “he was separated from his biological parents almost immediately at birth and will never meet them.”
The judge added that he deserved compensation as he “should have been raised in a financially comfortable environment.”
The story has resurfaced alongside viral reports from China, including that of 27-year-old Xie Qingshuai, whose biological father — a multimillionaire — prepared him three fully furnished apartments as a reunion gift.
