Foreign Fathers

This article is about a topic that I had never thought about, but is actually quite serious and worrying. It talks about how in Japan when a man and woman get divorced 80% of the time the woman gets sole custody of the child, which means that the father rarely sees their child again. The article attributes this to the tough laws and patriarchal cultural norms of Japan.

However, the main focus of this article is foreign men becoming estranged from their children when their Japanese wives run away to Japan with their child. Although Japan has signed the Hague Convention, which is designed to prevent a parent from blocking access to a child by moving to another country, many foreign fathers have been unable to take successful legal action against their ex-wives to gain custody of their children. The Japanese legal system appears to favour continuity so the longer a child is separated by the kidnap parent, the greater the chance the kidnap parent has to retain their child. The Japanese government, however, claims that these sorts of events are the minority and that most cases have actually been successfully resolved.

Japanese law is quite ambiguous in its law with regards to child abductions in this context. The abduction is only a criminal offence if it is done by force and disrupts public order. E.g. A visual kidnap would be far more likely to be considered a crime as opposed to a mother boarding a plane with her children. Japanese family court judges also enjoy great discretion in their decisions and can reverse foreign custody, refuse any visitation, award only a few hours a year, or in place of visitation rights order just a few photos every year. However, Japanese civil law is notoriously weak with enforcement and lack police-like powers to facilitate civic judgements. 

Reference

https://amview.japan.usembassy.gov/en/divorce-law-in-japan/