Japan Will Sign Hague Convention On Child Abduction

[Bucky]

Here is another case.

Hillman last heard from his son in mid-July, when Sean left a strange message on his grandparents' answering machine. In a move unusual for the 5-year-old, Sean called his grandmother by her first name.
"He basically said he missed everyone in Seattle, but that he was going away and wouldn't be able to see anyone for a while," Hillman said. "I knew he was being coached."
Days later, Hillman received a threatening e-mail from a Japanese attorney retained by Ogawa, claiming he'd face stalking charges if he attempted to contact his son.
Fearing he'd lost Sean, Hillman phoned the attorneys who had represented him during his divorce, Michael Louden and Amy Franklin-Bihary. They and lawyers in Japan began fighting Ogawa's legal action, ultimately garnering two favorable rulings in Japanese court.
At the same time, Hillman continued trying without success to reach his son. Ogawa, he said, rebuffed efforts by State Department officials to simply see the child and refused to allow them to deliver Christmas presents to the boy.
Hillman has also reached out to Washington state's congressional delegation, prompting Rep. Jay Inslee to write the State Department in support of Hillman's claim.
"I described the actions of the Japanese government as predictable because I have had other constituents present similar cases and I believe Mr. Hillman is correct," Inslee said in the letter. "No similar case," he added, "has ever resulted in the return of a child to a U.S. citizen parent."
Louden said he and Franklin-Bihary have done nearly all they can from the United States.
"The only way that I think Sean is ever going to have contact with Carl again is to have the Japanese government take action," Louden said.
Japanese consular officials did not return requests for comment on Friday because of their homeland's vernal equinox holiday.
In a statement to ABC News responding to a request last year, the Japanese embassy staff offered their government's sympathy to parents but defended the country's position on the Hague Convention.

[Mike Oxlong]

Wonder why more fathers don't keep the kiddo's passports locked up in the family safety deposit box, or take some other sort of precautions...? Given the track record of local rice cookers that go on the fritz, you'd figure the fathers might be more proactive in protecting their own rights.

[Mock Cockpit]

Foreign courts need to start granting sole custody to the non-Japanese parent and deporting divorced Japanese based on the fact that Japan is a non-signatory to the Hague Convention. Radical and pretty unfair I agree but the only way this is going to change is if the Japanese start to kick up a stink about it.
Edit- upon reflection, maybe deportation is a tad harsh.

[Mike Oxlong]

Well, at least the IRS is doing all it can to help...

http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc357.html

[kurohinge1]

Wonder why more fathers don't keep the kiddo's passports locked up in the family safety deposit box, or take some other sort of precautions...? Given the track record of local rice cookers that go on the fritz, you'd figure the fathers might be more proactive in protecting their own rights.

Nothing spells love and trust more, than locking the kids' passports away from your wife.

[Mike Oxlong]

True dat, true dat!

You could just put the entire family's passports in the safety deposit box, along with other important papers and valuables. That's a normal security precaution, and has the added bonus of buying you time if the shit hits the fan.

[Greji]

[quote="kurohinge1"]Nothing spells love and trust more, than locking the kids' passports away from your wife.

]

[seattlefather]

Retaining passports is a standard court request in any divorce situation like this. The wife and child's passports were locked up. But a US parenting evaluator, ufamiliar with Japanese culture and dealing with Japanese people was convinced that the numerous threats of abduction made by my wife prior to our seaparation were simply harmless threats and the evaluator strongly requested that visitation be allowed. So my ex after posting a bond in US dollars and showing round trip tickets was allowed to get her passports.

There are by the way numerous documented cases of Japanese citizens being subject to these orders, leaving the US courthouse going to the local consulate and recieving new passports within the week for them and their chid (even though Japanese passport issuance rquirements (on paper) require the signature of both parents) so having the passports withheld doesn't always work.

The only entertaining thing about this whole process is that my ex's attorney in Tokyo fancies himself some kind of big shot and writes these hilarious letters to my attorney and I, to date all the things he has said WILL happen, have not and likely won't. He threatens all these things but forgets that all the things he hides behind legally are the same things that prevent any of his threats from being anything more than feeble attempts at antagonism.

This is not a gaikokujin dake na mondai either. There are members of the Diet and several grassroots groups in Japan who are seeking family law reform there as well. Japan really can't sign the Hague on childrens issues until they reform their family law to accomodate and be able to enforce the basics like joint custody and visitation.

Carl Hillman
Seattle WA

[seattlefather]

Most family court judges and court appointees can't appreciate the importance of there being no Hague aggreement and often assume that Japan has signed it.

Als I love looking at the name of this thread and seeing when it started. likely one could come on here 5 years from now and see the same nature of comments. Japan will dangle the Hague carrot for another few years at least. What are they saying now 2010? Doesn't matter there legal system can't provide reciprocal service other signatories, so there signing would not gain giajin much.

[Mock Cockpit]

There are by the way numerous documented cases of Japanese citizens being subject to these orders, leaving the US courthouse going to the local consulate and recieving new passports within the week for them and their chid (even though Japanese passport issuance rquirements (on paper) require the signature of both parents) so having the passports withheld doesn't always work.

My wife certainly didn't require my permission to get our kids Japanese passports. When I asked she said that only one parent's permission is needed.

[seattlefather]

http://seanhillman.weebly.com/ This is the site for Sean Hillman.

check it out please.

Thanks, CH

[AssKissinger]

Why did you get divorced?

[FG Lurker]

Why did you get divorced?

Wife was nuckin futs?

[Mike Oxlong]

Wife was nuckin futs?

I'd bet dollars to donuts "yes!"...

It's quite instructive that in a great many of these cases, the woman goes running back to her parents for sympathy, support, and a solicitor. Even in Japan, you'll find a great many who sprint back to the old jikka every time they quit a job or have to make a major decision like what dress to buy to go with their new calf-shit brown hair color.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I'd bet dollars to donuts "yes!"...

It's quite instructive that in a great many of these cases, the woman goes running back to her parents for sympathy, support, and a solicitor. Even in Japan, you'll find a great many who sprint back to the old jikka every time they quit a job or have to make a major decision like what dress to buy to go with their new calf-shit brown hair color.

My girlfriend threatens to run home whenever we have any sort of disagreement. It's not too tough for her either since the jikka is just an hour away on the JR. I thought she was just being a baby till I mentioned it to a couple of friends and they said their old ladies do the same. Be my fucking guest, by the way. I could use the night off from your bullshit

[AssKissinger]

My girlfriend threatens to run home whenever we have any sort of disagreement. It's not too tough for her either since the jikka is just an hour away on the JR. I thought she was just being a baby till I mentioned it to a couple of friends and they said their old ladies do the same. Be my fucking guest, by the way. I could use the night off from your bullshit

I bet you have enough sense not to make her the mother of your child.

[FG Lurker]

My wife has her crazy moments like all women do, but she's never threatened to go back to her parents' place. I think I lucked out into one of the less crazy of the female species.

(All women are crazy, the only difference is the degree. )

[AssKissinger]

All women are crazy, the only difference is the degree

That's why only a very select few should be having children. Way less than one percent. The way it is today, with MOST people having kids is fucking retarded.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I bet you have enough sense not to make her the mother of your child.

That's why she's on the pill and I ask her almost daily if she remembered to take it.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Some fucking bullshit show called "Big Daddy" on TV Asahi right now featuring a family in some bumfuck area of already bumfuck Kagoshima with 12 kids. The bottom four are a set of 6 year old triplets and an infant. Their house is so fucking shitty you'd think they lived in Vietnam. The parents had a lot of kids, divorced once, remarried and cranked out a bunch more kids. Disgraceful.

[AssKissinger]

That's the standard in America. People need to be fucking sterilized.

[james]

since we live with her folks, when we have a disagreement, my wife suggests that i should go back to canada..

[Mulboyne]

Representatives from the embassies of Canada, Britain, France and the US issued a joint appeal today for Japan to become a signatory to the Hague Convention. The US reported problems involving 73 US citizens, the UK reported 36 cases, Canada 33 cases and France 26 cases. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they are considering the matter.

EDIT: Found the Reuters report.

Allies urge Japan to resolve child abductions

The United States and three other countries on Thursday urged Japan to relieve the plight of a rising number of foreign nationals who are denied contact with their children by their Japanese former spouses. Well over 100 such cases involving parents from the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Canada are in stalemate, senior diplomats from the four countries told a news conference. "Without a doubt, Japan's allies are united in their concern regarding this tragic issue of international child abduction," said Michele Bond, a U.S. consular affairs official. One reason for the problem is that Japan is the only member of the Group of Seven major industrialised nations not to have signed a 1980 convention on international child abduction. "The left-behind parents of children abducted to or from Japan have little realistic hope of having their children returned and encounter great difficulties in obtaining access," the group said in a statement released at the news conference. "We therefore call upon Japan to accede to the convention." Japan's government says it is considering joining the 80 member countries who have already signed. "We are actually studying the possibility of signing the convention," said Takeshi Akamatsu, assistant press secretary at the Foreign Ministry. "One of the issues concerned is that in the Japanese legal system, we refrain from interfering in these private issues," he said.

It is not unusual in Japan for one parent, often the father, to lose all contact with their offspring after a divorce. Japan's joining the convention would not help foreign parents who divorced in Japan get access to their children, and the diplomats urged the government to deal with existing cases individually. Paul Wong, a 43-year-old Tokyo-based U.S. lawyer lost touch with his small daughter after his Japanese wife died and her parents successfully sued to remove his parental rights. He is pursuing a legal appeal, but has not seen his child for two years. "I can never give up hope for my daughter because she has no one else to protect her," he said in a telephone interview.

[Behan]

Unfortunately, 'considering the matter' could mean they intend to do nothing. But it's good that these countries issued a joint appeal. With enough international pressure Japan might start to move. Or would they just resist 'gaiatsu' out of pride and habit?

[Greji]

Unfortunately, 'considering the matter' could mean they intend to do nothing. But it's good that these countries issued a joint appeal. With enough international pressure Japan might start to move. Or would they just resist 'gaiatsu' out of pride and habit?

Does anyone else get the feeling that they are translating "kangaete miru" as considering the matter?

[Mulboyne]

[FG Lurker]

Japan urged to sign treaty against parental child abductions
Mainichi Daily News, June 2, 2009

Diplomats from the U.S., France, Canada and the U.K. are pressing Japan to sign an international treaty against parental child abductions.

The number of cases of parental child abduction being committed by Japanese is rising sharply. Officials from the four embassies say there have been 168 reported cases to date involving 214 children, and that there could be many more.

As a result, they are urging Japan to sign the Hague Convention, which came into force in 1983 and provides a legal means for returning abducted children. The country's refusal to sign means that the government is not legally required to release any information in such cases and prevents it from soliciting help in repatriating children to Japan.

"If the well-being of the child is given top priority, he or she should be brought up with links to both parents. For a situation to not be addressed at all is a big problem," said the officials during a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Minato Ward, Tokyo, on May 21.

The U.S. Embassy reported one case of a Japanese woman divorcing her American husband, taking their child back to Japan with her and preventing her former husband from seeing the child. In another case, letters sent by a foreign father living abroad were returned, and all contact was effectively severed.

In the U.S., such parental abductions are considered a crime, with suspects placed on international watch lists by the FBI in some cases.

However, critics say that signing the convention will prevent Japan from protecting its citizens fully.

"The attitude of the government is non-involvement in civil affairs," said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' International Legal Affairs Bureau.

"However, with the number of international marriages and divorces rising, the possibility of signing is under consideration."

(Full Story)

I was somewhat optimistic when this story first broke but I'm not anymore.

Even if Japan does sign, will the cops here actually enforce the law? I highly doubt it. They'll conveniently be "unable" to find the Japanese parent.

[ekalmus]

The Japan Children's Rights Network website has been recreated. Mark Smith - the webmaster for CRN Japan has rebuilt the site - find it at

http://www.crnjapan.net

Updates are being added daily. Join the new discussion group as well.

[(1VB)freels]

Thanks for the update. I need this as I am going thru seperation right now and I think she wants to go back to the states(she's JN) and go to school. If so then I will get divorced there and get the kids and if she pulls some kidnapping bullshit like I think she might, then I will have her ASS!!!!

[Greji]

...."One of the issues concerned is that in the Japanese legal system, we refrain from interfering in these private issues,"....

Translation: "When interfering in privacy matters, we leave that to the police!"