The Japanese government has moved closer to changing its family law system, including the rules governing international child custody. According to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, the Foreign Ministry office would manage cases of international child kidnapping along with the search for abducted children.
The new plan would bring Japan closer in line with the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction.
In 2009, the case of Christopher Savoie brought Japan’s custody laws into intense international focus. His Japanese ex-wife, Noriko Savoie, took his two children to Japan, violating a U.S. court order that required her and the children to stay in the United States. Christopher Savoie traveled to Japan to get his children, took them to a nearby U.S. consulate office and was arrested at the front gate of the consulate by Japanese authorities.
The Japanese government agreed to drop all charges if Christopher would go back to the U.S., leaving his children with their mother in Japan. Since then, Japan has been under increasing pressure to alter the way it manages international child custody cases.
The Savoie case, however, is far from the only one on record. Hundreds of Japanese ex-spouses have relocated themselves and their children to Japan despite legal custody agreements in the U.S. since 1994. According to U.S. State Department figures, 321 children have been wrongfully taken to Japan. To date, all of these cases are unresolved.
Present Japanese law does not recognize joint custody arrangements even among people who live in Japan. Children of divorced Japanese parents rarely spend time with their non-custodial parent.
Complicating international child custody reform efforts is the belief among many Japanese citizens that custodial parents, typically Japanese women, leave the U.S. for Japan with their children because of spousal abuse. This perception has led to a significant number of Japanese coming out against changes to the current child custody laws.
Source: CNN, “Japan takes a step closer to reforming its child custody laws,” Tricia Escobedo, 5/21/2011
