Japan urged to sign accord against parental abductions

Friday 22nd May, 06:18 AM JST

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki speaks often in Washington. He like to emphasize what he expects in his diplomatic mission. His first expectation and rule, is that he wants “no surprises” between the US and Japan.On Monday, March 9th, he was surprised; and not in the good way.A seemingly irrelevant House of Representatives resolution sponsored by a New Jersey Republican (Chris Smith) calling on Brazil to honor its commitment to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, suddenly became Japan’s problem. The Democratic leadership of the House decided that this resolution (H. Res. 125) was the perfect vehicle to address a number of related child abduction issues. Wronged parents can be very tenacious constituents.Thus, the Chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee Howard Berman (D-CA) allowed the resolution to be amended to include language that pointed out other cases of unlawful child abduction. Some cases have been with countries that have signed the Hague Convention, but have demonstrated a pattern of noncompliance, such as Brazil, Bulgaria Chile, Ecuador, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Poland, and Venezuela. AND Countries that are NOT “partners with the United States under the Hague Convention” such as JAPAN, India, and Russia.The Resolution also included two examples of countries that have caused American parents-left-behind incredible grief: Brazil being one case and JAPAN being the other. It was not lost on members of Congress that Japan was being grouped with less “developed” countries like India and Russia.On March 11th, Mr. Berman agreed to “suspend the rules” (a common parliamentary procedure with noncontroversial legislation) and the Resolution sped through the HFAC and landed on the floor of the House also under the suspension of the rule. Several congressman gave prepared statements and Chairman Berman introduced the resolution and led the discussion (debate). Rep Xavier Becerra (D-CA) discussed the situation of Melissa Braden who was abducted to Japan. It appears Rep Smith called for a roll call vote (it is possible this was the result of last minute Japanese Embassy lobbying). I am not sure that was wise for Japan, but it was good for Mr. Smith. (you can find the discussion in the Congressional Record pp H3300-3305.]Under suspension of the rules, debate is limited and the vote is a voice vote with the result implying unanimous consent. With a roll call vote, everyone has to go on the record as to how he or she voted. Interestingly, 418 of the 435 members of the House were on the floor at the time. So the result was 418 voting for the resolution, making it unanimous–and embarrassing for Japan.This is not the first time Japan has been surprised by the US Congress by issues of values and law to which Tokyo is not a “partner” with the US. And it will not be the last.More on Melissa Braden. Link to original article. 

Denial of child abduction as a crime is hurting those left behind, writes Justin Norrie in Tokyo.

FOUR years ago George Obiso’s former wife took his two young sons on a six-week holiday to Japan and never came back.

Mr Obiso, 42, still recalls anxiously watching the clock in his Gold Coast home as he waited for their mother, Sachi Shimada, to return them on the designated day.

“I waited and waited. I kept listening out for their voices at the door, but they never came. Sachi had no intention of ever bringing them back,” says Mr Obiso, of Southport, who had split from his Japanese wife the previous year after she became depressed and withdrawn.

“Her family moved out of their Yokohama home, disconnected the phone and disappeared somewhere into Japan, so I couldn’t find them or even talk to my sons.

“It’s been four years. I’ve missed a large part of their childhood and I’m starting to doubt I’ll ever see them again. It’s been a horrible, horrible nightmare.”

Even if he found Anthony, now 12, and Jorge jnr, 8, Mr Obiso would be unlikely to get much sympathy from Japan’s family law courts. For almost 30 years, Japan has resisted pressure from other Group of Seven nations to sign the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction; as such its judiciary does not recognise parental child abduction as a crime.

Mr Obiso is one of hundreds of “left-behind” parents from international marriages whose children have been abducted by a spouse who in effect enjoys immunity in Japan from prosecution by local authorities.

The Hague convention, which has been signed by every other developed country, requires the “prompt return of children who have been abducted from their country of habitual residence”. Since it took effect, foreign parents have spent millions of dollars working their way through Japan’s bureaucratic court system in an effort to see their children again and take them home. No court has ever ruled in their favour.

Many more Japanese parents have been affected. There is no tradition of dual access, so when parents separate, one gets custody while the other typically never sees the children again.

Colin Jones, a professor at Doshisha University Law School in Kyoto, believes that Japan is essentially “a haven for parental child abduction”. This is largely because Japanese courts are entrenched in a national bureaucracy whose goal is to ratify “the status quo, particularly in child custody and visitation cases, where courts have few, if any, powers to enforce change”.

Because there is no substantive law defining the best interests of the child in cases of parental separation, ratifying the status quo invariably means deciding in favour of the parent who already has custody.

The problem is compounded in cases where there are allegations of abuse, as Paul Wong can attest. After the death of his Japanese wife, Akemi, from cancer in 2005, the US lawyer, 42, left his daughter Kaya, now 5, with her maternal grandparents in Kyoto and made fortnightly visits from Hong Kong, where he was working, while he looked for a job in Tokyo.

“I promised my wife before she died I would make sure Kaya knew her Japanese cultural heritage and her grandparents, so I decided to honour that and live with her in Japan,” he says. “Just as I was about to move to Tokyo, Akemi’s parents hit me with a lawsuit alleging I had sexually assaulted my own daughter. The lawsuit was full of so many crazy, disgusting lies. Akemi’s friends told me they blamed me for her death, and that’s why they wanted to take Kaya away.”

The court found the claims could not be substantiated by evidence, but ruled that custody should be given to the grandparents anyway.

“This has done irreparable harm not just to me, but to a sweet, innocent child,” says Mr Wong. “It’s gut-wrenching, but I simply can’t give up hope.”

Japanese family lawyers say allegations of sexual assault and domestic violence are common in parental child abduction cases. In a recent article in Mainichi Shimbun, a prominent family lawyer, Kensuke Onuki, said he opposed Japan signing the convention because “in more than 90 per cent of cases in which the Japanese women return to Japan, the man is at fault, such as with domestic violence and child abuse”. Whereas women can’t easily provide evidence of the abuse, he says, the men rarely have trouble drumming up attention in the media.

For fathers like Mr Wong, this claim “is insulting. It simply doesn’t make sense. If it’s the voices of foreign fathers that get heard, then why is it that not one foreigner has had his child returned to him? Not one - ever.”

“A lot of people are getting fed up with the way Japan is running around the world lobbying for diplomatic support over the few Japanese abductees to North Korea, when the country is permitting hundreds of its own citizens to do the same thing to foreign parents in broad daylight.”

In September, after a newspaper report claimed Japan would sign the convention as soon as 2010, the Australian embassy in Tokyo sent a “formal government-to-government communication … commending them and offering assistance,” an embassy official said.

But Japan’s Foreign Ministry subsequently distanced itself from the report. A spokesman said the Government was still considering signing the convention but had not made a decision.

Link back 

Well bit of progress everyday keep your fingers crossed.  Here are a few VERY small pics. All I can get right now are just super small cell phone pics.  

Erika

Alyssa

Collin

Collin Library

So I finally was able to talk to my wife the last few days.  I also got to talk to my oldest daughter Erika for about 20 seconds.  I told her I love her soooo much and I miss her sooo much.   I asked her if she missed me, and she said she did.  I asked her if she loved me and she started to say it.  Yes daddy I ….. then she started speaking Japanese as she is starting to forget english.  I broke down in tears after that.  My youngest two children don’t really remember me I guess.   Alyssa is 4, and Collin just turned 1 in May.  If I don’t get them back soon I probably never will.  If you can help me get back to Japan before Christmas please donate to my paypal.  The button is on the right side of the page.      Here are a few tiny pics she sent.  Trying to get her to send some larger pics.Here are all the kids together plus a friend.  The pic is so small I don’t know which of the larger girls in the middle is Erika.  As you can see the girls hair got cut so short.  It makes me sad.  Erika had long beautiful brown hair, now it looks like they dyed it black so she’ll fit in better.  Here is my first picture of my little boy that doesn’t even know me now standing on his own.  I missed so much    Collin standing up. They are not clickable that is the full size pics.  Hope to have more soon.   Keeping up hope.  Ryan 

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7668654.stm 

Foreigners whose Japanese partners are refusing to let them see their children are pressing for government help.

Japanese women from collapsed international marriages are increasingly bringing their children to Japan without confirming custody rights, creating diplomatic problems between Japan and other countries, it has emerged.

In one case three years ago, a Japanese woman’s marriage to a Swedish man collapsed and she brought their child to Japan. Later when she traveled to the United States by herself she was detained, as police in Sweden had put her on an international wanted list through Interpol for child abduction. She was sent to Sweden and put on trial.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction bans people from taking their children to their home country after a collapsed marriage without confirming issues such as custody and visitation rights. The convention has about 80 signatory countries, mainly in Europe and North America, but Japan is not one of them.

Among cases known to foreign governments, there are about 50 cases between Japan and the U.S. in which foreign husbands are requesting custody of children brought to Japan by Japanese women, and about 30 such cases between Japan and Canada. Similar cases exist between Japan and countries such as Britain, Australia and Italy.

In such cases, when foreign husbands file lawsuits in Japan seeking custody or visitation rights, their claims are rarely accepted, and the tough barriers put up by Japan in such cases have caused frustration.

In March this year, the Canadian Embassy in Japan held a symposium on the child abduction convention that was attended by Canadian and U.S. government officials. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper also commented on the issue when he came to Japan during the July G8 summit. Some diplomatic officials have criticized Japan, saying that Japan, while criticizing North Korea’s abductions, it is carrying out abductions itself.

Among the Japanese women who have come back to Japan with their children, there are apparently some who have fled due to violence from their husbands. In other cases they have apparently concluded that they would not be able to win court custody lawsuits because they don’t know much about the other country and can’t speak the language well. There are also many who don’t realize that their actions constitute child abduction under the convention, and that they risk the same consequences as in the case in Sweden.

Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry figures show that the number of international marriages climbed from 27,700 in 2005 to 44,700 in 2006, about 1.6 times more. At the same time, divorces increased from 7,990 to 17,100 — more than doubling.

Considering that bringing children to Japan without confirming custody could constitute abduction, the Foreign Ministry has started to consider informing Japanese in international marriages through diplomatic establishments abroad. (By Megumi Nishikawa, Expert Senior Writer)

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20081025p2a00m0na009000c.html

The fate of children after an international marriage breaks up is gaining increasing attention globally and nationally.

Often, when such marriages end in divorce, parents take their children back to their home country and the other parent ends up estranged from the children.

When children are brought back to Japan by a parent after an international marriage ends, it sometimes leads to family conflicts because Japan has not signed a multilateral treaty designed to deal with this issue.

The Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was adopted in 1980 and came into effect in 1983. About 80 countries, including the United States and many European nations, have signed the treaty.

Regardless of the country of a child’s birth, a parent can seek assistance from their government for the child’s return or request to meet the child if he or she is in a country that has signed the treaty.

Among the seven leading industrialized nations, only Japan has not ratified the treaty. Because of this, problems arise when a divorced Japanese from an international marriage brings a child back to Japan.

This problem is not widely known in Japan. However, the issue gained prominence after the plight of a Canadian father was publicized on a news program. The man claimed he was upset because he had been unable to contact his son and daughter for many years after they were taken to Japan.

In Europe and the United States, there has been great interest in cases in which children are taken by parents across international borders after a divorce.

In Canada, there are currently 30 unresolved cases involving children who have been brought to Japan.

According to the U.S. Embassy, there are 47 unsettled cases in which children were taken from the United States to Japan as of May. Japan was the third most common destination following Mexico and India.

Because Japan has not signed the child abduction treaty, parents who live outside of Japan cannot seek any form of assistance from the Japanese government in locating their child.

Conversely, if a child was to be taken out of the country, the government has no legal mandate to secure the return or request for access rights to the child.

William Crosbie, assistant deputy minister for consular services in the emergency management branch at Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, said a child should have the right to see either of his or her parents in accordance with the convention. He added that with the number of Japanese international marriages increasing, The Hague Convention also is helpful to Japanese parents.

Nongovernmental organizations have started taking action to protest the government’s refusal to sign the treaty.

The Tokyo-based Nationwide Network for Realizing Visitation in Japan held a demonstration in Tokyo in July, demanding that the government sign the treaty.

Another NGO, the Children’s Rights Council of Japan (www.crcjapan.com), used the Internet to gather signatures on a petition asking the government to take action on the issue.

The government has said that it is prepared not to sign the treaty because it is unnecessary, among other reasons. However, the Foreign Ministry and Justice Ministry are currently considering signing the treaty.

Mikiko Otani, a lawyer familiar with the issue, said: “When a couple living overseas divorce, one of the people involved sometimes insists that a child must not be brought back to Japan.

“If Japan doesn’t sign the treaty, it would result in an unfavorable situation for the child. From the viewpoint of protecting the interests of the child, I hope people will give this problem some attention.”

(Sep. 4, 2008)

 Original Story link

Announces resignation in face of low approval, economic turmoil

By William L. Watts, MarketWatch

Last update: 9:13 a.m. EDT Sept. 1, 2008

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda unexpectedly announced his resignation Monday after less than a year in office.

Fukuda, beset by low approval ratings and an economy seen on the verge of recession, said efforts to overhaul the nation’s economy were unable to overcome a split parliament, according to news report accounts of his speech.

Fukuda said he decided it would be better for someone else to lead the nation through the turmoil, the report said.

Fukuda had replaced Shinzo Abe, who also stepped down abruptly after less than a year.

The announcement came after Asian markets had closed. The Nikkei 225 dropped 1.7% on Monday and is down about 16% for the year.

The Japanese yen, which had rallied sharply against major currencies, trimmed gains but remained 1.4% higher against the U.S. dollar at 107.97 yen.

Against the euro, the Japanese unit was 2% higher at 157.74 yen.

William L. Watts is a reporter for MarketWatch in London.