{"id":17443,"date":"2024-05-28T02:54:31","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T09:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17443"},"modified":"2025-07-23T14:48:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T21:48:33","slug":"my-sna-visible-minorities-column-56-addressing-japans-child-abduction-problem-on-the-recent-bill-passed-to-allow-joint-custody-after-divorce-may-27-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17443","title":{"rendered":"My SNA Visible Minorities column 56: “Addressing Japan\u2019s Child Abduction Problem”, on the recent bill passed to allow joint custody after divorce (May 27, 2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0Here’s my latest SNA column. \u00a0There are mixed feelings from many people hurt by the Koseki System, but I hold the view that the new law allowing for Joint Custody after divorce<\/a> is a step in the right direction. \u00a0Read on and see what you think. \u00a0Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

ADDRESSING JAPAN’S CHILD ABDUCTION PROBLEM<\/strong>
\nBy Debito Arudou, Ph.D., Shingetsu News Agency Visible Minorities column 56, May 27, 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n

Courtesy https:\/\/shingetsunewsagency.com\/2024\/05\/27\/visible-minorities-addressing-japans-child-abduction-problem\/<\/a><\/p>\n

It has been one of Japan\u2019s worst-kept secrets.\u00a0 <\/span>It has shattered lives and caused enormous international embarrassment to Japan\u2019s reputation as a nation of laws.\u00a0 <\/span>It has caused untold misery to countless children and families worldwide.\u00a0 <\/span>And amongst all the G7 \u201cdeveloped\u201d nations, it only happens like this in Japan<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m talking about Japan\u2019s issues with child custody and access after divorce. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Japan has something called the Family Registry (koseki) system<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>It serves the important purposes of not only conferring Japanese citizenship, it also prioritizes the family unit over the individual.\u00a0 <\/span>A throwback system unamended for more than a century, the Family Registry has a major bug<\/a>:\u00a0 <\/span>If you get divorced, the bureaucracy forces the couple as a registered family unit to cleave back into two unconnected individuals with completely severed family ties.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The problem is that children are likewise forced into one severed family registry or another,\u00a0 <\/span>This means they lose all legal ties with one parent, and that parent (usually the father) has not rights of joint custody or child visitation. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This means that divorce in Japan completely disappears a \u201cLeft Behind Parent\u2019 (LBP) from a child\u2019s life.<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This invisibility is enforced by the rest of society too.\u00a0 <\/span>For example, if you want to visit your child\u2019s school and find out how they\u2019re getting along, the school will turn you away as a stranger.\u00a0 <\/span>Or if you want to say hello to your child at home or on the street, your ex can call the police and have you arrested as a stalker.\u00a0 <\/span>Even in extreme cases where the custodial parent dies or abandons the children, grandparents have adopted the kids<\/a> (since the kids are still legally registered to that family unit) and shut out the LBP all over again!\u00a0 <\/span>Despite this, LBP are obligated to pay child support.\u00a0 <\/span>So essentially the system is there to punish you for ever getting divorced, since you lose everything and can\u2019t even pay to play.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This cruel system affects everyone in Japan, Japanese citizen or not (as former Prime Minister and LBP Junichiro Koizumi<\/a> can attest).\u00a0 <\/span>But it hits international divorces especially hard.\u00a0 <\/span>If you are, say, a foreign resident with a Spouse Visa you void your status to live and work in Japan.\u00a0 <\/span>Then on top of that you get specially targeted by two evil narratives. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One is of course the racial profiling that happens when your ex siccs the police on you, and you get the regular third degree for existing while foreign in Japan.\u00a0 <\/span>The other is a conviction that foreigners are naturally violent and prone to spousal or child abuse<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, people actually believe (and are repeatedly told by mass media and even the Japanese government) that despite all the bullying in Japan that goes on at home, school, and the workplace, foreigners are the ones who beat their children because of automatically presumed \u201ccultural differences.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Your rights are even fewer if you marry a Japanese and live overseas.\u00a0 <\/span>Umpteen cases have been recorded of illegal child abductions (e.g., taking a child across an international border without the permission of both parents) by Japanese spouses fleeing to Japan.\u00a0 <\/span>Sometimes they are assisted by abduction guidebooks you can find on Amazon Japan.\u00a0 <\/span>Sometimes they have been actively abetted by the local Japanese consulate issuing them a new passport, in defiance of overseas court orders granting joint or sole custody to the Non-Japanese parent.\u00a0 <\/span>And when the LBP comes to Japan to enforce the court order in Japanese court, they get ruled against because \u201chabitual residence<\/a>\u201d has already been established here.\u00a0 <\/span>She who dares, wins.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Many a Non-Japanese LBP has been arrested<\/a>, gone on hunger strike, or even committed suicide<\/a> due to this nightmarish lack of rights.\u00a0 <\/span>And enough international arrest warrants on Japanese spouses have piqued the interest of foreign governments.\u00a0 <\/span>Finally, after decades of overseas government pressure (gaiatsu), Japan signed The Hague Convention on International Child Abductions in 2014<\/a>, only a decade ago.\u00a0 <\/span>Unfortunately, Japan just caveated its way out of ever enforcing it<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

People filing claims under the Convention rarely got a Japanese court to side with them.\u00a0 <\/span>If the abduction took place many months ago, then \u201chabitual residence\u201d was established and that\u2019s that.\u00a0 <\/span>Or there\u2019s the common prejudice that a child naturally belongs more with their mother.\u00a0 <\/span>And one verbal claim of \u201cchild abuse\u201d or \u201cspousal violence\u201d (which in Japan, according to some spokespeople, could include a raised voice, an angry look, or even a silent stare in an argument<\/a>) is usually enough to close ranks.\u00a0 <\/span>Plus there\u2019s the conceit that Japan\u2019s population is decreasing, so there\u2019s a demographic interest in stopping depopulation through repatriation.\u00a0 <\/span>We got our kid back, so that\u2019s that.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This system has even inspired racism.\u00a0 <\/span>As I mentioned before, the Japanese mass media and government surveys have long had a white-hot curiosity about finding what causes conflict in any international marriage.\u00a0 <\/span>(Japanese men are pretty browned off about losing their women to foreigners\u2014even though the majority of international marriages are Japanese men to foreign women\u2014so there\u2019s a smug satisfaction in knowing that foreign men aren\u2019t perfect either.)\u00a0 <\/span>But a Foreign Ministry pamphlet in 2014<\/a>, issued shortly after Japan signed the Convention, clearly reinforced the narrative that foreigners are violent through illustrations depicting a Caucasian father beating his child.\u00a0 <\/span>For good measure, the pamphlet also insinuated that Japanese can\u2019t get a fair deal in a foreign court, and was clearly written working backward from a conclusion that the Convention disadvantaged Japanese.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Likewise, the most creative argument came from far-right propaganda network Sakura TV<\/a>, which opined in 2018 that Japan\u2019s signing the Hague Convention was just the judiciary trying to appease White people.\u00a0 <\/span>The Convention\u2019s main goal was to empower White men playing around with women from \u201cuncivilized\u201d countries, who would then divorce them in favor of White women, and convert their foreign playthings into de facto babysitters of their offspring.\u00a0 <\/span>Therefore the Convention exists to ensure White cads still enjoy access to their bastard children!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But let\u2019s return to reality and get to the good news occasioning this column.\u00a0 <\/span>First, full disclosure:\u00a0 <\/span>I too have been through a divorce in Japan and lost all contact with my children<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>So have many of my friends and colleagues, Japanese and foreign.\u00a0 <\/span>I have argued before that nobody, Japanese or foreign, should get married under these conditions and have children, as it\u2019s just too risky should the relationship sour.\u00a0 <\/span>I stand by that argument even today. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But finally this May the Japanese Diet passed a law establishing joint custody<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>Starting in 2026 and working retroactively, this law means that both parents will now, at least on paper, legally have a say in a child\u2019s upbringing after divorce.\u00a0 <\/span>Unless both parents agree to sole custody, joint is presumed under Family Court proceedings.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Naturally, there will be caveats for accusations of domestic violence or child abuse.\u00a0 <\/span>But these have to be recognized by a court case-by-case as legitimate concerns.\u00a0 <\/span>It is the first change to Japan\u2019s laws concerning parental authority in 77 years, and it will be revisited in five years to assess how well it\u2019s working.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the response has been muted from my experienced colleagues.\u00a0 <\/span>Some, inured to decades of Japan\u2019s bad-faith negotiations and policing, doubt the law will ever be properly enforced.\u00a0 <\/span>Signing the Convention didn\u2019t work, so why should this?\u00a0 <\/span>After all, what Japanese court would ever willfully give priority to a foreigner over a Japanese in a dispute?\u00a0 <\/span>Or by now the law is too little, too late, as their children are all grown up and the damage is done for a lifetime.\u00a0 <\/span>An outcome that makes up for all the past cruelty and denial is simply impossible. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, my take is that this new law is still good news.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s better to have it than not.\u00a0 <\/span>It can be pointed to as the law of the land, as opposed to a malleable norm that can be much more easily bent away from any LBP in any convoluted \u201che-said, she-said\u201d dispute.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In principle, giving power to both parents over the well-being of a child is better than giving all power to one vindictive spouse.\u00a0 <\/span>It will at least allow the possibility of a child hearing both sides of a story, which is a valuable skill set for anyone in their formative years.\u00a0 <\/span>Moreover it will bring Japan back within international practices. \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been pretty much determined by child psychologists that, on average, children need both parents in their life.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s about time the law in Japan reflected that.\u00a0 <\/span>The Japanese government has finally taken that step in the right direction.\u00a0 <\/span>Now let\u2019s wait and see if it gets enforced in good faith.<\/em><\/strong>
\nENDS<\/p>\n

======================
\nDo you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org’s activities? \u00a0Please consider donating a little something. \u00a0More details here<\/a>. Or if you prefer something less complicated, just click on an advertisement below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SNA: It has been one of Japan\u2019s worst-kept secrets.\u00a0 It has shattered lives and caused enormous international embarrassment to Japan\u2019s reputation as a nation of laws.\u00a0 It has caused untold misery to countless children and families worldwide.\u00a0 And amongst all the G7 \u201cdeveloped\u201d nations, it only happens like this in Japan. \u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m talking about Japan\u2019s issues with child custody and access after divorce. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Japan has something called the Family Registry (koseki) system.\u00a0 It serves the important purposes of not only conferring Japanese citizenship, it also prioritizes the family unit over the individual.\u00a0 A throwback system unamended for more than a century, the Family Registry has a major bug:\u00a0 If you get divorced, the bureaucracy forces the couple as a registered family unit to cleave back into two unconnected individuals with completely severed family ties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem is that children are likewise forced into one severed family registry or another,\u00a0 This means they lose all legal ties with one parent, and that parent (usually the father) has not rights of joint custody or child visitation. \u00a0This means that divorce in Japan completely disappears a \u201cLeft Behind Parent\u2019 (LBP) from a child\u2019s life. This invisibility is enforced by the rest of society too… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,54,18,36,49,22,34,33,50,35,20,5,12,37,26,73,4,14,13,56,60,46,11,65,64,7,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-pinprick-protests","category-academia","category-bad-social-science","category-child-abductions","category-cultural-issue","category-exclusionism","category-fingerprinting-nj","category-gaiatsu","category-good-news","category-history","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-injustice","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japans-blame-game","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-politics","category-media","category-nj-legacies","category-nj-voices-ignored","category-practical-advice","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-racist-images-in-media","category-sitys","category-united-nations","category-unsustainable-japanese-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17443"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17584,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17443\/revisions\/17584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}