"In court, when I said I wanted to see my kids every weekend, they laughed at me."

Sean Reedy, a 16-year resident of Japan, complaining that joint custody and visitation rights are almost non-existent for foreign spouses after their marriage to a Japanese collapses. (Washington Post)

Original article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2697-2003Jul16.html

Divorced From Their Children: In Japan, Foreign Fathers Have Few Custody Options"
By Doug Struck and Sachiko Sakamaki
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 17, 2003; Page A09

TOKYO -- It was quiet in the house when Sean Reedy got home after giving exams all day at the university. Too quiet. No cry of "Poppy!" from little Louie, 8, followed by the usual demands of Bunta, 6, and Yuzo, 5, to kick the soccer ball around before dinner.
And too neat, he recalled. The house on that Saturday 18 months ago was immaculate. As though it had been straightened in a final, departing gesture.
{etc}

Discussion:
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=quote&id=742

Children's Rights Council Japan

http://www.crnjapan.com

"Join our free yahoogroups discussion group. Go to http://www.yahoogroups.com and select the crnjapan group. To contact us directly, call/fax +1-276-637-3799 (USA) or email crcjapan[at]yahoo.com"

A Chilean mother currently in Japan on a 90 day temporary visitor visa trying to find justice. Her child was abducted by her estranged Japanese husband from her parents' house in Cuba. After the abduction he forged her name to the divorce papers at his city hall in Japan:

http://www.crnjapan.com/pexper/cay/en/index.html

She is hopeful, but all indications are that she will never get her child back, given Japanese law, Japanese family court, and past history of Japanese policy in these situations. Parents married to Japanese nationals be warned.

It is commonly thought that only fathers receive such poor treatment at the hands of the Japanese, but there are as many if not more cases of mothers losing their children permanently. (In particular the ones without a voice in the English press, from Thailand, China, Phillipines, Korea, etc.)

UMJ Sponsored Presentation on:
Children's and Parental Rights in Failed Marriages as Practiced in Japanese Courts and How the System Discriminates Against Foreign Parents
Date: 6 December 2003, 14:00 - 17:00
Two guest speakers plus intro, Q&A. Etc.
Location: Tokyo Station Yaesu exit.
for details email: c[at]tokyowithkids.com

related web pages:
Children's passport issuance alert program (for US citizens) http://travel.state.gov/pia_program.html
and also their sheet on child travel/abduction from Japan
http://travel.state.gov/abduction_japan.html

The situation of Parental abduction of children in Japan is not simply a problem with foreigners married to Japanese. Because of very vague laws and the ineffectiveness of Family Court in this country, Japanese parents are also suffering. The following organization is for fathers in Japan. I think they are open to foreign fathers joining too. A few of them will be attending the seminar on Saturday across the street from Tokyo Station.

FathersWebSite
http://www.fatherswebsite.com/
Bella Case Hiroo 205, 2-32-10 Ebisu, Shibuya-ky, Tokyo
150-0013
email: fathersweb@hotmail.com

FYI, The fatherswebsite is not only for fathers. They really should have chosen a better name. There are some mothers there also.

By CrcJGuy on Thursday, January 8, 2004 - 10:01 pm:
If you are interested, CRC Japan is writing a report to send to the UN on the occasion of the Committee on the Rights of the Child considering Japan's 2nd periodic submission. Its on a *temporary* web page here.

http://www.crnjapan.com/ideas/unreport.html

along with links to lots of referenced. (This page will go away in a week or two though. But the final version will be posted at a different link.)

Comments welcome until Sunday to crcjguy {at) crnjapan.com

Japan With Kids is a supporter of the document submitted on 12 January 2004 to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in response to Japan's 2001 Compliance Report (submitted by Japan in August 2003).
_________________________________
from Children's Rights Council Japan
"The critique will be considered by the Committee during their meeting this month from the January 12-30, 2004. Japan's turn is on the 28th. You can read about it here.
http://www.crnjapan.com/treaties/uncrcreport/en/

We have focused on issues that relate to the rights of children of failed marriages and other forms of parental separation. Of course this includes the issues of international abduction, for which our organization is probably most well know. But also the issues of parental visitation, gender discrimination, nationality discrimination, and discrimination based on status (marriage) of a child's parents. Finally we cover the issue of visas for non-custodial foreign parents of Japanese children. Lots of statistics too, for the mathematically inclined.

You may also be interested in another NGO report submitted by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. Scathing from cover to cover, 228 pages long. Example:
---Begin Quote
With respect to children born out of wedlock, discrimination, such as that mentioned in the following seven points is provided for under legislation. The number of discriminations resulting from this kind of
legal system is beyond measure.
---End Quote

So understated, yet not. There is a link on the above site.

Apparantly there were many reports submitted against Japan. One person I talked to said 18 of them. The rest should be available in February after the meeting ends."
_________________________________
By Admin on Friday, January 16, 2004 - 12:05 pm:
The link for the JFBA document submitted to the UN is:

Prepared by the Japan Federation of Bar Associations for the UN Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child meetings beginning 12 January 2004 (English)
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=3773&flag=legal

Also Children's Rights Council Japan has an email list for people interested in the goals of CRCJapan at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crcjapan/
I think it is in both English and Japanese.

Thought I would let people here know that an English translation of the Civil Code of Japan, "Book 4 - Relatives" is now available on the crnjapan web site.

www.crnjapan.com/japan_law/laws/en/book4_relatives.html

It covers things like forming marriages, divorces, children (custody, adoption, recognition, nullifying adoptions, etc.) Personally, I was not able to find it in English elsewhere on the internet.

Crc Japan also has translations of other laws available:

www.crnjapan.com/japan_law/en/

Some other good ones are coming one day soon also - Family Registration Law (koseki-hou) and Residence Registration Law (Jyuumin hou).

Oh, and if anyone wants a Japanese translation of the Washington Post article mentioned in this topic, a CRC member did one and posted it here:

www.crnjapan.com/articles/ja/washpost20030717divorcedfromkids.html

I think it is important to point out here to all those who aren't up to snuff on all these issues, that the father was driven to a desperate act BECAUSE of the mother's behavior and the custody ruling in her favor (as practiced in Japan), having the grandparents (on the mother's side) adopt the child, and not encouraging/allowing reasonable visitation. The point here is that a custody ruling in this country, in favor of one parent or the other parent means a 100% split from the other parent. This is now being seen by many people as a violation of the child's rights. In the past, and Japanese laws reflect this, children were items owned by the family. If a family splits up then the children are assets which end up with one side or the other side. Now we have a huge change in view on this, but the laws have not been changed to reflect this.

Don't misunderstand me, the mother's actions are rational too. The law drives both parents to extremes, and there is NO ROOM for middle ground if they can't come to an agreement out of court.

In fact, there will be an increase in desperate acts as people become more and more frustrated with the family court system and the laws on which it is based.

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=3&id=352979

This came out in Japanese in several papers, but this is the first I've seen in the English press.

Lawyer arrested over daughter's abduction
Sunday, October 23, 2005 at 15:09 JST
FUKUOKA ­ A 47-year-old lawyer and former assistant judge at the Kobe and Fukuoka District Courts has been arrested on suspicion of abducting his eldest daughter.

Masanori Watanabe is alleged to have abducted the 9-year-old elementary school girl at Nishitetsutakamiya train station in Fukuoka at 7:15 a.m. on Oct 4, while she was on her way to school. Also arrested for assisting in abduction was Watanabe's father, Harumi, 73, who drove the girl back to his house in Nagoya, where they were ultimately found by the police.

On the day of the abduction, Watanabe was due in the Fukuoka Family Court in an appeal over custody. According to the Fukuoka Prefectural Police, Watanabe and his former wife had been involved in a divorce and custody lawsuit. In a Supreme Court ruling last year, custody of the child was awarded to Watanabe's former wife.

In October, immediately following the divorce, the mother's parents adopted the daughter. The Fukuoka police are reportedly planning to arrest two private detectives for complicity in the abduction. (Compiled from news reports)

Tuesday, July 18, 2006
THE ZEIT GIST
'It's a heartless country that would separate loved ones'

By MARK SMITH
Special to The Japan Times
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20060718z1.html

President George W. Bush made this headline comment in April to Japanese mother Sakie Yokota, whose daughter Megumi was abducted at age 13 by North Korean agents.

But not so widely reported in the Japanese media are the cases of those non-Japanese parents whose children have also been internationally abducted, by Japanese citizens themselves.

Outside Japan, calls for reform are growing. During a June summit with Prime Minister Koizumi, Canadian Prime Minister Harper urged Japan to assent to The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

This widely signed treaty would require Japan to expeditiously return abducted children to their country of habitual residence. As it is, foreign parents are forced to navigate a glacially moving court system that has never returned a child abducted by a Japanese parent.

After Samuel Lui's wife abducted their son Ezra to Japan, his U.S. custody order was perfunctorily validated by the Osaka District Court and confirmed four months later by the Appellate Court.

Yet the Family Court then granted him a mere three hours of visitation once a year. The Japanese mother had physical possession, and continued to deny Sam's custodial rights. At no point, even two years later after the Supreme Court validated Sam's custody, would a Japanese court or the police return his son. The intractability of the situation eventually forced Sam to give up custody in exchange for an unenforceable visitation agreement.

In January 2003, Yamila Castellanos alleges that her Japanese husband used a promise of living together to trick her into leaving daughter Emiri with relatives in Cuba and traveling to the United States. He then flew to Cuba and abducted Emiri to Japan.

There, Yamila accuses him of forging her signature on a form for divorce by mutual consent that gave him full custody and gave her no spousal support. When filed, Yamila was not and had never been in Japan. Despite the testimony of handwriting experts in Yamila's favor, she has only seen her daughter three times since, for a total of 120 minutes. The case is still winding its way through Japanese courts.

During his divorce, Canadian Murray Wood was granted full custody of his children, Manami and Takara. Then, in November 2004, he agreed to let his children travel to Japan, allegedly to see their sick grandfather. But when his ex-wife's child support payment failed, Murray found out that she had shipped her belongings to Japan and moved out of her apartment.

Despite the premeditated nature of the abduction, the Saitama District Court subsequently assumed jurisdiction and transferred custody to their Japanese mother. Since then, Murray has been allowed to see his daughter just once, for 10 minutes in a tightly guarded court room.

The Web site of the Japan Children's Rights Network ( www.crnjapan.com ) contains a list of Japanese parents, who like Murray's ex-wife, are wanted for arrest on child-abduction related offenses. But the Japanese government will not extradite its citizens, claiming that parental abduction is not recognized as a crime in Japan.

In a May radio interview about Murray's case, Japanese Ambassador to Canada, Sadaki Numata said, "I have some difficulties in your talking about 'Japan' as if the government is making this decision. This is in the judiciary process."

But cases like that of Brett Weed make these words ring hollow. Brett's divorce decree allowed the Japanese mother to relocate their children, Takoda and Tiana, back to Japan, but granted him well-defined visitation rights. After arriving in Japan, the mother cut off all contact.

For nearly a year, Brett's attorney tried repeatedly to serve court documents on the mother, according to the "Hague Convention on Service Abroad," which Japan signed in 1970. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan's "central authority" for this treaty, returned all three attempts, with messages like "The address is correct but no one is ever there."

When the attorney tried to send the documents by postal mail directly, the only other option legal in Japan, they were returned, saying "Since the sender is considered to be a dangerous person, the Metropolitan Police Department has intervened and a temporary injunction and refusal of delivery have been issued by a court."

The U.S. court eventually transferred custody of the children to Brett.

But should he ever try to recover his children in Japan, the court will certainly dismiss his claim because the mother was not properly served with court documents, thanks to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Through the eyes of these foreign parents, Japan appears to support international crimes of abduction. If this is not the case, then Japan should sign the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, reform its family laws and apply them fairly.

Mark Smith is the pseudonym of the Web master of the Japan Children's Rights Network (www.crnjapan.com). He has been unable to see his 4-year-old son, Yoshiya, since March 2002. Send comments to: community@japantimes.co.jp

Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Parents' rights a demographic issue
By COLIN P.A. JONES
Special to The Japan Times
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20060718z2.html

With recent news that the country's fertility rate hit a new historical low in 2005, the government will doubtless consider more policies to encourage Japanese people to have more children.

What seems missing from much of the debate on the subject, however, is the role of fathers. Japanese men appear to get a bad deal when it comes to family. On the one hand, they are expected to be the traditionally stoic salarymen. But they are also now expected to be "modern" fathers -- to change diapers and perform other parental duties, which many Western men take for granted. Many Japanese fathers now regard such childrearing activities as a natural part of their daily lives. The government also encourages even more fathers to spend more time and energy with their children.

The problem is that the Japanese legal system cannot (or will not) protect this investment when a marriage fails (or when there is no marriage to start with -- fathers have virtually no rights to children born out of marriage). Family courts will almost always award custody to mothers. A 2002 manual written for family court personnel includes a chapter on custody decisions that gives "mothers should get custody" as the only clearly articulated guideline.

This is in spite of both a constitutional provision calling for gender equality in family law matters, as well as a similar mandate in the family court procedural statute.

Some fathers would probably be able to live with their ex-wives having custody if they could only see their children regularly, but there are no meaningful visitation rights in Japan. The country's Supreme Court has effectively declared that it is "not negatively disposed" to visitation -- if both parties agree to it. Yet some lawyers actually recommend that visitation not be allowed until a divorce is finalized, which means fathers can go for months without seeing their own children. And if a mother (or rare custodial father) opposes visitation there is not much that the court system can do. Even if visitation is agreed to and ordered by a court, it is usually not enforceable: there are few serious sanctions for ignoring family court orders (a U.S. State Department Web site warns that compliance with Japanese family court orders is effectively voluntary).

The lack of enforceability means that the parent who creates a status quo first will likely win in litigation, the courts not being able to do much other than ratify what has already happened. This may be one reason why both fathers and foreigners of either gender may often seem particularly disadvantaged in custody litigation. Most divorces are initiated by women, meaning they will have the opportunity to create a new status quo. And in an international marriage, the Japanese parent is also likely to have an advantage in acting first.

Lack of enforceability may also explain why it is easy to terminate visitation or to have it denied in the first place: It solves the problem for the courts (though not the parent seeking visitation) and gets a troublesome case off their dockets. And because there are no clear standards for visitation, the role a father is allowed to play post-divorce may be subject to the personal views of those hearing the case.

Men who have bathed their babies and tried to spend time with their children are often shocked to find the court system cannot or will not do anything to protect this precious relationship. Tragically, this leads some fathers to abduct their own children.

In these cases it may be mothers who are shocked when they discover that the court system often cannot reunite them with their children (just as they may be disappointed when it comes to enforcing child support). The biggest losers, of course, are the children.

For those people who have experienced such tragedies, it would be unsurprising if some concluded that there is simply too much pain and emotional risk associated with marriage and childbirth.

Japan needs more children, now -- it faces a massive demographic catastrophe. Yet when it comes to divorce, the legal system seems to tell one parent -- fathers in particular -- that they are optional.

Small wonder then, that many people choose not to get married, or to not have children if they do. The price of failure is simply too high.

Colin P.A. Jones is an associate professor at Doshisha University Law School in Kyoto.

Internal pressure to change family court law is starting to surface:

Separated Children's Support
Appeal to all parents of children who are denied any contact with their children by the other parent, if that child is living in Japan.
Planning to initiate a class action suite in 2007.
Open to Japanese citizens and non-citizens
Also applying to children born out of wedlock.

Contact: SCS administration team kowomamoru[at]gmail.com
Web site: http://www.geocities.jp/kowomamoru/index_en.html

More grassroots web sites aimed at increasing pressure on Japan to renovate their family law.
http://japanchildabduction.com/
______________________________________
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/08/27/INGD3KO4C71.DTL

San Francisco Chronicle
Child custody in Japan isn't based on rules
Colin P.A. Jones

Sunday, August 27, 2006

It's a beginning, but it will not help parents like Yamila (www.tokyowithkids.com/yamila.html). For those parents who find themselves in this situation, the most informative site is www.crnjapan.com
____________________
Japan to sign parental-abduction treaty
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200805100051.html
05/10/2008
By Miako Ichikawa
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Japan will sign a treaty obliging the government to return to the rightful parent children of broken international marriages who are wrongfully taken and kept in Japan, sources said Friday.

The Justice Ministry will begin work to review current laws with an eye on meeting requirements under the 1980 Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, the sources said. The government plans to conclude the treaty as early as in 2010.

The decision was reached amid criticism against Japan over unauthorized transfer and retention cases involving children. The governments of Canada and the United States have raised the issue with Japan and cited a number of incidents involving their nationals, blasting such acts as tantamount to abductions.

In one case, a Japanese woman who divorced her Canadian husband took their children to Japan for what she said would be a short visit to let the kids see an ailing grandparent. But the woman and her children never returned to Canada.

Once parents return to their home countries with their children, their former spouses are often unable to find their children. In Japan, court rulings and custody orders issued in foreign countries are not recognized.

Under the convention, signatory parties are obliged to set up a "central authority" within their government. The authority works two ways.

It can demand other governments return children unlawfully transferred and retained. But it is also obliged to find the location within its own country of a child unlawfully taken and retained, take measures to prevent the child from being moved out of the country, and support legal procedures to return the child to the rightful parent.

Sources said the Japanese government will likely set up a central authority within the Justice Ministry, which oversees immigration and family registry records. The ministry has decided to work on a new law that will detail the procedures for the children's return.

In 2006, there were about 44,700 marriages between Japanese and foreign nationals in Japan, about 1.5 times the number in 1996. Divorces involving such couples more than doubled from about 8,000 in 1996 to 17,000 in 2006.(IHT/Asahi: May 10,2008)

The Oyako Net
A nationwide network for realizing visitation in Japan.

Date: July 13th
Time: 13:00~16:30 (Doors Open 12:30)
Place: Bunkyokuritsu Academy Miyogadani Kaigishitsu A
Station: Miyogadani (Marunouchi-sen)
Cost: 1,000 yen

RSVP to mail address below if you are interested to attend.

Schedule:
Individuals to speak (Current)

1. Paul Wong
2. Yuki Misuzu
3. Mitsuru-san
4. Tanase sensei (Lawyer)

The street demonstration will be before or after this event. Details soon.

mail: oyakonet2008@yahoo.co.jp
blog: http://blog.goo.ne.jp/oyakonet

We demand that the government of Japan enact laws of visitation and support adequate visitation so that children can maintain sincere relationships with non-custodial parents after separation or divorce.

We urge that the sole custody system be replaced into a system where both parents can share responsibilities to care for children after separation or divorce.

In Japan, only the parents that have possessing the children can decide on visitation between the children and the other parents. Since we, non-custodial parents, legally cease to be parents of our children after divorce, no remedy do we have to enforce our visitation agreement made by the mediation or granted by the court.

Until today, few have criticized this inhumane treatment: worse, we suffer from discrimination by the public who consider non-custodial parents lacking in parenting skills.

It is time to establish an adequate visitation system.

The parents are divorced; yet, the children are not divorced from their parents. Children have the right to maintain regular and personal contact with their parents. In fact, alienating children from non-custodial parents, without just reasons, not only harms the children psychologically, but also violates the rights of children under the UN Convention.

Lacking of stipulation for joint custody and visitation, indeed, exacerbates custodial battles in Japan. Parental abduction, abusing of habeas corps, false allegation of domestic violence and child abuse is prevalent.

Children are suffering from this outdated Japanese family law. It is time to establish an adequate visitation system.

No longer will we tolerate this ongoing plight. In order to protect children from discrimination or misery after parent's divorce, we establish a network to; exchange information and opinion; press the Judiciary, the Executive, the Legislature, and local councils to enact laws and systems to comply with the UN Convention.

On July 13th 2008, we will have the first conference of Oyako Network.

We urge your support!

The US State Department has stepped up the issue of international child abduction over the last 8 years to include Japan as a primary abduction haven, and their web site reflects this. The information is valid and to the point:
http://travel.state.gov/abduction/country/country_501.html

To date, Japan has still not signed the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction.

To date, Japan still has absolutely no joint custody concept in the family law. Any Japanese parents practicing any degree of joint custody are doing it on a cooperative and voluntary basis outside the court system. No family court mandated solution to visitation or joint custody that can be enforced (the Family court does not have any power to enforce its decisions).

Family court can assess a fine, but it is unclear if they have the power to collect the fine.