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  chikuwa at 10:57 PM JST - 10th October

  Here, the good news for Mr. Clarke. I truly wish him and all the afflicted husbands/wives the best of luck.

  **General Edition Sunday, May 18, 2008 Issue No. 469 (excerpt)

  Two weeks ago, the Japanese government made a notable announcement that may make Japan more compatible with the legal conventions used internationally, and will be of particular benefit to non-Japanese spouses of Japanese. The announcement was that by 2010, Japan would sign the the 1980 Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, an international legal construct that attempts to deal with the thorny issue of court jurisdiction when children of international marriages are moved cross-border, often by a parent trying to thwart a court ruling in the previous jurisdiction. ** (http://www.debito.org/?p=1667)

  Related article (http://familylawinternational.blogspot.com/2008/05/japan-to-sign-parental-abduction-treaty.html)

  For people who understand Japanese. (http://www.chunichi.co.jp/article/living/life/CK2008042002005126.html)

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  brightlights at 11:22 PM JST - 10th October

  I will say this one more time. I am a foreign woman who was married to a Japanese man and had a divorce and am having a bitter custody battle for my two sons. This is not an issue that affects only men. Japan is very racist towards foreigners and wants to make sure that any child born here is kept Japanese. It is almost impossible to take a child out of the country when going through this process because the courts put a stop on the childs passport whether it be Japanese or from somewhere else and notify all the airports. So if you get to the airport and you are trying to take a child out of the country and there is a stop on their passport, you will get arrested and the child taken straight to the other parent.

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  meanmutha at 12:20 AM JST - 11th October

  jesus... I will note to self this. Thx guys and gals for your 2 cents.

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  meanmutha at 12:26 AM JST - 11th October

  anyway... being a Dad and knowing what I know about these people including the wife. This is kidnapping really.

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  bluepancake at 01:25 AM JST - 11th October

  Personally, I believe that terms like "kidnapping" and "abduction" are not fit in case like this. We are talking about the children and their parents. I feel sad that some people have to rely on the court to solve their situation with the separation of a spouse and children, but I figure many marriages aren't as simple in reality. I do agree that there need to be improvement in the law of japan concerning divorce and custody of children. I also agree with some people who have posted here about how we only have one side of this story.

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  meanmutha at 02:27 AM JST - 11th October

  bluepancake... very good point.

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  mtt at 04:48 AM JST - 11th October

  Protecting its own citizens and preventing a child from being taken out of country against his/her wish and welfare should be a duty of any country. Blightlight,could you explain why this has anything to do with racism? In California, there are many Japanese mothers who got child custody in court and allowed to take their children back to Japan to start a new life, all against their fathers' wishes.

  The most important is the happiness of each child, not a right of any parent.

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  brightlights at 07:56 AM JST - 11th October

  Sure mtt, no problem. Basically my ex-husband had no interest in having sole custody, but his parents wanted my children to stay in Japan so the court awarded them custody, which I am currently fighting. A country that awards custody to someone other than the parents even though one of them is fit to care, will offer the best life, and is where the children want to be, obviously has some sort of problem. When the judge asks you what kind of food you cook and if you read Kanji as a determining factor for guardianship then there is a problem.

  I am perfectly aware that in most countries including Japan when the divorcing couple is Japanese, that it is usual for the judge to award custody to the mother. I am not condoning this. Of course I agree that the happiness, health and overall well being of the child is the most important.

  In my case I have experienced blatant racism and have been treated as half a person and not like a mother at all. Why is that? Could it be that I don't cook Japanese food every day and don't read Kanji? Who knows but I have financial stability, my children want to remain with me, I'm not planning on taking them out of the country and would like them to be involved with their Japanese family, and still theirs and my needs are being ignored. I could go on but I won't. You asked why I have said this has anything to do with racism. Obviously it does. If you can't see it or understand that, I don't know what else to say.

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  the_sicilian at 08:32 AM JST - 11th October

  This is 100% racism. Those that do not see it are blind.

  I have basically accepted this as a risk when getting married. So far, no problems after 15 years, but you never know. I know I'm screwed because I am a foreigner in Japan. It doesn't make it right, I just understand that a document that is "being looked at to sign in 2010" does not mean anything.

  I hope this does not come to pass with me.

  Addiu

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  mtt at 09:51 AM JST - 11th October

  Blightlight, thank you for your reply. It is outrageous by any cultural standard if a child custody is given to grandparents instead of parents who can give good care. Hope you can get your children back. But still, I've heard similar cases among Japanese couples who are both working and their children had been taken care mainly by their grandparents while the parents were busy working and fighting with each other. As for your perceived racism in Japan; well I don't know what is this with Japan, one moment I feel people are so open-hearted and works so hard to create a rapport with anyone from outside, and then next moment they are rigidly closed to anything unfamiliar. Japan seems to be constaly changing back and forth between the two. I feel that, even though I am Japanese, maybe not a typical one. When they feel threatened and defensive, they seem to cling to everything familiar and traditional (which others cosider as Japanese way), but is it a racism? Then again, I really don't know the true definition of racism.

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  New_Attitude at 07:30 AM JST - 12th October

  ************The problem with CRC is all that they seem to want to take about is child abduction. If their motto is truly "The best parent is both parents", then they need to focus a little bit more on child abandonment. This is one statistic they don't seem to focus on all that much. What these groups fail to mention is that many times, the Japanese spouse living abroad to a non-Japanese often skip back to Japan without the child as well. Same goes for the foreign parent (more often than not the father) in Japan who intentionally leaves children behind. The parental abduction thing is bad, I admit. But CRC needs to do more in regards to tracking down deadbeat parents. Sometimes Japanese wives(and especially the husbands living in the Asia Pacific region) leave back for Japan without their children, and have no intention of providing any kind of support for these children. Without this support, the children cannot claim Japanese residence / citizenship in the event they choose to live in Japan (as is normally the right so long as they claim sole Japanese citizenship by the age of 21.) And what about the fathers in Japan who skip out and want nothing to do with their children. Is this ever addressed by CRC?

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  JmannGod at 10:56 AM JST - 14th October

  the japanese government has already stated that they think they already fulfill the requirements of the Treaty. The treaty allows each country to do 'whatever is best for the welfare of the child'. Japan thinks that leaving the child in a stable situation 'is best for the child'. I.e. the treaty will change nothing and Japanese will still break foreign laws with impunity. it is sickening.

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  JmannGod at 11:01 AM JST - 14th October

  brightlights. You must consider taking your children by force away from your grandparents. Then finding a place to live somewhere else in japan. stay that way for at least a year. The police don't get involved in child custody (as you probably know). Find a way out on a russian ship from Otaru in Hokkaido.... It is probably the only way.

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  Spanishwoman at 12:05 PM JST - 14th October

  I have read that the children are given to the Japanese parent because he/she is the only one who has a family register in Japan (again discrimination), and the children are therefore registered as his/her children (of the Japanese parent).

  Now I wonder if this could happen also in case of a child born abroad, and therefore with a foreign passport and not registered in a Japanese family register. Given the age of Shane's children, maybe that's their case, but anyway it is not specified where they were born.

  I could be facing this problem in the future and would like to be well informed.

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  Spanishwoman at 12:11 PM JST - 14th October

  As the J law in divorce seems to be very rudimentary (read shameful), with the custody issues unsolved, maybe it would be a solution to get divorced in the foreigner spouse's country? Would that be a solution to avoid this kind of problems? Can the J court rule something against another country's divorce laws?

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