Four women are challenging Japan's strict laws on sterilisation, arguing they violate women's constitutional rights to bodily autonomy.

• Under current law, sterilisation is only permitted for women with multiple children at health risk or facing life-threatening pregnancies, and requires spousal consent.
• The lawsuit, titled "maternity is not my body's purpose," challenges the decades-old "maternity protection" law, one of the world's most restrictive.
• One plaintiff, Kazane Kajiya, travelled to the United States to undergo sterilisation at age 27, calling it an act of defiance against societal pressure to become a mother.