A Tokyo court awarded just over A$400,000 to a man for the pain and hardship he suffered from being switched at birth because of a mistake at a social welfare hospital 60 years ago.

“I am relieved by the court’s decision to acknowledge our demands,” said the unidentified plaintiff who still lives in the Japanese megalopolis.

After leaving the San-Ikukai hospital in Tokyo’s working class neighborhood outside the main Sumo Stadium to live with his non-biological parents in 1953, the man had a hard life.  The gent formerly believed to be his father died in 1955 when the plaintiff was just a toddler, leaving him and his siblings to be raised by a single mother.  He got a job in a machine shop after junior high school and went to an industrial high school at night.  Later, he would become a truck driver.

But his biological family did well as Japan’s economy rose out of the post-war ashes.  They put their sons through private high schools and universities.  But somewhere along the line, the well-to-do brothers had their doubts because the eldest didn’t look like the others.  It was their investigation and DNA tests which led them to their long-lost “O Niisan”.

The court noted it is possible for someone from a poor family to achieve a higher education, but acknowledged that the plaintiff suffered mental anguish because he was raised in an environment where he could not expect to go to college.

His biological parents who died before meeting their son were awarded some money, which was given to the younger brothers who initiated the investigation.

The hospital is now studying the verdict to decide if it will appeal.