Japan’s Supreme Court hands down a road map for parental child abductions
In 2014, after years of diplomatic pressure and countless horror stories about parents losing all contact with children taken to or retained in Japan, the nation finally joined the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. This should have relegated to history Japan’s growing reputation as a “black hole” of abduction of […]
Supreme Court breaks new ground, ruling in favor of U.S.-based Japanese father in international custody battle
The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday in favor of a U.S.-based Japanese father seeking to reunite with his teenage son, who was taken by his estranged wife to Japan in 2016, concluding that the wife’s dogged refusal to abide by an earlier court order mandating the minor’s repatriation amounts to her “illegally confining” him. The […]
Japan’s Supreme Court orders a child be sent home in a Hague parental abduction case. Maybe.
On March 15, Japan’s Supreme Court issued an important decision in a case arising under the Hague Convention on child abduction. Except it wasn’t about the convention, but about habeas corpus. Most press accounts have characterized the ruling as ordering that a child brought to Japan by his mother be returned to the United States, […]
U.S. cites Japan for noncompliance with Hague treaty on cross-border parental child abductions
WASHINGTON – The U.S. State Department on Wednesday listed Japan as one of the countries showing a pattern of noncompliance with the so-called Hague treaty, which sets procedures to settle cross-border parental child abduction cases. Japan joined the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction in 2014, and it is the first time since […]
Left-behind dad’s last resort: Impeach Japan’s Supreme Court judges
James Cook is relentless. His four children were abducted to Japan from Minnesota by his Japanese wife in 2014. This was after Japan acceded to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, so he might have had hope in the early days. Using the baroque procedural regime the Diet passed for […]
Australian father gets suspended term for trespassing at in-law’s Tokyo home
A Tokyo-based Australian journalist and father was given a suspended prison term of six months by the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday for illegally trespassing into a building complex where his in-laws live in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward in October, in what the journalist said was an attempt to check on his children after a powerful […]
European lawmakers chide Japan over abduction of children by a parent
BRUSSELS – European lawmakers lobbied by fathers unable to see children taken by Japanese mothers urged Tokyo on Tuesday to combat the abduction of minors by one parent and change a law that does not recognize joint custody after a split. In a resolution passed unanimously, the European Parliament’s petitions committee said it was concerned about […]
Hague jars with Japan’s family law, a zero-sum game with only one outcome
On April 1, the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction went into force in Japan, as did the necessary implementing legislation. Having already written about this legislation in a prior column, I won’t revisit the subject here. While Japan’s accession is a welcome step forward, I wonder how it will actually pan […]
In Japan, foreign parents lead charge against loss of child custody
A growing number of foreign nationals in Japan are speaking out against what they say is a little-known but entrenched system that allows one parent in a broken relationship to take away children and block the other from visiting them. The issue of what domestic and overseas media call parental child “abduction” has regained international […]
Film sheds light on plight of left-behind parents
The documentary film “From The Shadows,” completed last December, features five left-behind parents and their struggles to reconnect with their children. During a recent interview with The Japan Times, producer and director David Hearn stressed that he was motivated to make the film to raise awareness and understanding. In the 6½ years it took to […]
