Divorced From Their Children
In Japan, Foreign Fathers Have Few Custody Options
Washington Post / Thursday, July 17, 2003; Page A09
...Foreign spouses in Japan frequently lose their children when their marriages collapse. There is no shared custody in Japanese divorces, and visitation rights are minimal and unenforceable....
Even if children are taken away from a parent abroad who has legal custody and are brought here, Japan is a haven from international law. Japan is one of the few developed countries that has refused to sign the 1980 Hague Convention promising to return abducted children to the rightful custody of an overseas parent. So a Japanese parent is not prosecuted for bringing children into the country in violation of a foreign court's custody order. Japan ranks second, behind Mexico, in the frequency of parental abduction cases...

I feel for anyone that this has happened to.

It is a terrible tragedy. For more information see the new YouTube Movie - Abduction is Abduction http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko_o6Qm98QM and read CRN Japan for more in depth information - http://www.crnjapan.com