Parental Abduction in Japan

If your child has already been abducted to Japan, go to the "My child has been abducted to Japan. What do I do now?" page immediately for suggestions on what to do.

See also the page on Private Investigators in Japan for strategies to get information from Japan and people who can help you.

All of Japan wants North Korea to account for the abductions of children like Megumi Yokota and return her if she is still alive.  But despite this nationally shared experience of grief, the Japanese government will not return children from other countries abducted to Japan by Japanese citizens.   Further, Japan refuses international calls to sign the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. This widely signed treaty requires a country to expeditiously return abducted children to their country of habitual residence.  The same thing Japan is asking of North Korea!!  Japan is the only member of the G7 who has not signed this treaty.

In international parental abduction cases brought to court, Japan claims that parental abduction is not a crime.  Courts up to the Supreme Court of Japan routinely refuse to return children to foreign parents with legal custody already ordered by foreign courts. Foreign courts in the country the children were living at the time the Japanese parent abducted them.   The issues on this page show that the Japanese government allows its own citizens should be allowed to abduct children from other countries with impunity.  Japanese feel free to abduct their child and run back to Japan where they will be protected from legal challenges by the non-Japanese parent who has legal custody in a foreign country.

The Issues

• Japan has not ratified the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. 
• Parental Kidnapping is not considered a crime in Japan, in particular when it is done by Japanese citizens.  (Discrimination Against Foreign Parents)
• Japanese courts do not recognize foreign custody orders
• Japan does not honor extradition requests for crimes involving a non-custodial Japanese parent abducting their child back to Japan
• Legal Abduction To Japan (Forced Retention of Children and Transport To Japan)
• Legal Domestic Abduction (Forced Retention of Children In Japan)

Solutions We Want To See

• Japan must sign and ratify the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
• Pass enforceable laws guaranteeing the return of abducted children to parents under Hague cases.  These laws and regulations must be scrutinized very carefully because it would be very easy to ratify this treaty and then simply allow courts to continue ruling against foreign parents in ways to ensure the treaty is rarely if ever applied.
• Allow foreign parents whose children were abducted prior to the treaty becoming enforceable to file Hague-style complaints even though a year may have passed since the abduction.  Setup a special commission to find equitable and enforceable solutions to these cases.
• This section is not complete -- more solutions coming.

Essays

• Possible Japanese Criminal Penalties for Child Abduction To Japan
• The Japan Federation of Bar Associations talks about Cross Border Abductions
• How to Retrieve Your Child Abducted To Japan
• Tips on How to Find Your Child In Japan

• Non-Legal Options to Extract Your Abducted Child

Documentation

• Murray Woods tried to be a responsible father by agreeing to let his ex-wife, Ayako Maniwa Wood, take their children to visit their sick grandfather in Japan.  She never brought them back. The Saitama family court recognized the valid Canadian custody orders, but decided to "kidnapped jurisdiction" and give custody to the Japanese mother.

• "Etsuko has ignored all orders of the Court since October 2001...and now the United States government and the state of Utah are pursing criminal charges against both Mr. and Mrs. Allred."  The Japanese police know where they are, but won't arrest them.  Read more about Michael Gulbraa's fight to get his children returned from Japan.

• "...the Osaka Family Court rendered a mandatory visitation schedule: since I was the custodial father, I am entitled to see my son once a year for 3 hours." Samuel Lui's custody of his son was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Japan, yet the Japanese legal system was not able to physically remove his son from his ex-wife.   Read more...

• A Japanese father traveled to Cuba to abduct their 2 year old daughter to Japan where he can hide her from her Chilean-Cuban mother who had legal custody.  After a divorce in Japan using allegedly forged signatures, the mother is still being denied all contact.  The story is here... (Español)(日本語)  (Update: It turns out the Tsugunari Yamada, the father has remarried, so may now be a bigamist if he is convicted of forgery in the ongoing trial.)

• A Japanese wife kidnapped their child Isabelle, and abandoned her in a children's home.  After, Frans Pau,  her French-Danish father found her and got her into a school in Japan, the mother took her away again.  The mother has now been sentenced to jail by a French court and is wanted by Interpol. A Japanese court allowed the mother to change Isabelle's name to Maki despite the fact that Frans had legal custody, even in Japan.  After that, a Japanese court inexplicably gave custody back to the mother.  Read more ...

• "Leave me alone. Alexander will see you when he is 18. " -Misako Ueshima who is now wanted by the Royal Canadian Police for international child abduction.  Read more...

• A Japanese mother living in Germany with her daughter decides that joint custody means she can take her child back to Japan without telling the father, Stefan.  A German court disagrees.  Read more...

• "On November 15th 2003, two days before the death of their mother from breast cancer,  my twin 5-year old children, Karsten Stouffer and Maple Stouffer were abducted by their Japanese Grandfather, Fumihiko Miyazaki and are now in Sapporo Japan." Read more...

Articles

• Mother arrested for abducting 'wrong' child; (J) November 28, 2007; Fukuoka--The 28-year-old woman, together with her boyfriend and her mother, planned to snatch her 4-year-old son back from her former husband. Instead of taking her son, however, they mistakenly grabbed another boy, 3, from his mother's arms outside the nursery school her son attended. Soon after fleeing the scene by car the three realised their mistake and returned the boy to the nursery school, where they were also arrested by the police. The woman had not been able to meet her son for more than 2 years.

• Yamanashi dad busted for child abduction; (J) June 3, 2007; The man took his 2-year-old daughter from his former wife's house on the morning of June 1st. The girl's mother contacted the police and the pair were discovered about 2 hours later a short distance from the same house. The woman got custody of their daughter when the couple divorced about 1 month earlier.

• Oldest Son Taken, 25 year Old Father Apprehended; Television Fukushima; April 9, 2007. (cached copy)
• Crime Spree - Foreigners who turn to Japan’s justice system for help find themselves ignored. Is incompetence to blame—or racism?; Metropolis Magazine;  March 15, 2007.  Several true stories of encounters between foreign residents of Japan and Japanese police.  The last is about an in-country child abduction and how the police ignored the friend of the Japanese mother who had just beaten up the foreign father, Steve Christy, and then detained him, helping the abducting Japanese mother get away. This seems to answer the question posed in the title.   (cached copy)

• Part 1 of 4: Frustrated Fathers of Abducted Children Turn to Public for Support; (By Kirsten Brown Scripps Howard Foundation Wire) Washington, December 15, 2006.  Four fathers quietly filed into a theater to watch "Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story," a documentary about North Korea's kidnapping of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s. If the names Walter Benda, Patrick Braden, Chris Kenyon and Paul Toland don't sound Japanese, it's because they're not. But their children are half-Japanese, and these fathers say Japan has committed the same crime against them that Japan accuses North Korea of committing.

• Part 2 of 4: Abducted Child Speaks Out About His Escape From Japan; (By Kirsten Brown Scripps Howard Foundation Wire) Washington, December 15, 2006. There is a saying in Japan: "If you look back as you're departing and you see the setting sun, you will return." On his last day of summer vacation, Chris Gulbraa, 15, rode his bike away from his home in Kasugai, Japan, without looking back - he had no intention of returning. Instead, he planned to fly to a reunion with his U.S. father, five years after his mother took him and his brother to Japan. He is the only child known to have returned on his own from such a separation.

• Part 3 of 4: Restraining Order Doesn't Stop Mother From Taking 1-year-old; (By Kirsten Brown Scripps Howard Foundation Wire) Washington, December 15, 2006. Patrick Braden spent only the first 11 months of his daughter's life with her before she was taken across the Pacific by her mother, Ryoko Uchiyama.  The night before their disappearance, Braden received a peculiar phone call from his ex-girlfriend, Uchiyama, who asked if he would like to spend a little time with their infant daughter, Melissa.

• Part 4 of 4: Japanese Laws 'Erase' American Father;  (By Kirsten Brown Scripps Howard Foundation Wire) Washington, December 15, 2006. The last time Brett Weed saw his 6-year-old son, Takoda, the pair was driving in Weed's black Ford pick-up, the one that his son liked to call, "Daddy's big truck." That was also the day Takoda cheerfully announced, "I have a Japanese daddy." Takoda's babyish words threw Weed, 42, but it confirmed what he had long suspected: his ex-wife, Kyoko Oda, was slowly replacing him not only as a spouse but also as a father.

• Jury awards father $3 million: Millersville man's children were taken to Egypt illegally by their mother in 2001; The Baltimore Sun; December 15, 2006.  This outlines an civil case one could bring in court to pressure a parent to return a child.  This particular example is US specific, but this strategy may work in other western countries also.  (cached copy)

• Legal que el padre secuestre a su hijo; Mal panorama para boricua presa en Japón (Spanish) PRIMERA HORA; November 2, 2006. Twenty-five year old mother from Puerto Rico,  Nilda Franchesca Mangual Torres, is currently being held in Jail in Japan on a weapons charge and a disturbing the peace charge . She reached an overload point of emotional despair over her inability to see her child, and the Japanese police and government's unwillingness to help her do so. So she went to the front door of the courthouse in Japan and said she was going to commit suicide if they did not help her. She apparently held a knife to her stomach. She was arrested and has been in the jail now for 2 months. There is a huge public outrage in Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican communities in New York and Florida in the United States. (cached copy)

• Japanese grandparents kidnap granddaughter because they don't like man that divorced daughter is dating.  October 14, 2006; Supreme Court suspends 10 month jail sentence from lower court.  It's unclear, but it sounds like the child has not been returned yet.  I call this the "OK for grandparents to kidnap" ruling. (cached copy)

• Missing: Melissa Braden; The Early Show on CBS; September 19, 2006.  This is a transcript of a television interview with Patrick and FBI agent Herb Brown.  (cached copy)

• Child custody in Japan isn't based on rules; San Francisco Chronicle; August 27, 2006.  (Japanese version also available.) A law professor discusses why institutional reasons rather than cultural ones are to blame for bad family law in Japan.  Much of Japan's family law is based on the need to cover up the fact that Japanese courts are powerless to enforce their own decisions.  It contains an example of culturally biased opinions regarding visitation made by a prominent "family expert" in a book on visitation, as well as descriptions of apparently mainstream anti-visitation opinions expressed by family court mediators.  Both of these, until now, were only available in Japanese. (cached copy)

• Gabriolans rally for return of children abducted to Japan; Gabriola Sounder; Monday, July 24 2006; More on the Murray Wood case and info that children’s author Sandy Duncan, novelist, Fellow, Royal Society of Canada and Professor Emeritus, McGill University, Georges Szanto, and his wife, Alison (Kit) Szanto and Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta, Gary Prideaux have written letters of support for him. (cached copy)

• 'It's a heartless country that would separate loved ones'; The Japan Times; July 18, 2006; Article by sponsored by Japan CRN discussing 4 cases of parental abduction by Japanese citizens and illustrating support by the Japanese government, despite claims to the contrary by the Japanese Ambassador to Canada, Sadaaki Numata.  (cached copy)

• Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper Press Conference Transcript; June 28, 2006. Canadian Prime Minister Harper announced in this press conference that he discussed international parental abduction to Japan with Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi. Koizumi has no comment on this matter.

• Radio Interview with Japanese Ambassador to Canada, Sadaaki Numata, about International Kidnapping case of Murray Wood; March 31, 2006.  The Current, interviewed left-behind parent Murray Wood, international lawyer Jeremy Morley, and the Japanese Ambassador to Canada, Sadaaki Numata (cached copy).  They talked about the Japanese court and government responses to Murray's case and Japan's reputation as a haven for international abduction. Getting a response on the record from Ambassador Numata was a unique event. He appeared defensive and his replies show just how different Japan's family values are from so much of the rest of the world.

• Think of the Children : Japan's prejudiced legal system encourages desperate parents to abduct their own kids; Metropolis Magazine; January 2006. Front page feature on Japan's prejudiced legal system from this wide circulation free magazine.  (cached copy)

• Japan remains haven for parental abductions; (日本語版) Kyodo News on CrissCross Japan; January 6, 2006.  This documents the strongest warning yet from Maura Harty, assistant secretary of the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, "If Japan has been fortunate enough to not yet have a case where one of their citizens has lost access to their child, that day will come."  The United States said Japan ranks top among East Asian counties in the numbers of parental abduction cases. Annette Marie Eddie-Callagain, an American lawyer practicing law in Okinawa Prefecture says, "Court orders from other countries are not recognized because an order from another jurisdiction, according to Japan, is an order that they do not have to follow."  (cached copy)

• Increased cross-national divorces raise concerns over parental abductions; Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge via TMCNet.com; January 03, 2006. More on the December seminar at the Canadian embassy, and a few more statistics on open cases in several countries.  (cached copy)  

• Japan remains safe haven for parental abductions; Japan Times; December 31, 2005. Discusses Murray Woods' case and mentions Japan CRN.  (cached copy)

• Supreme Court Decision: Father is a criminal for taking child while living separately from his wife; Asahi Shinbun; December 9, 2005.  (Article in Japanese only) A father who was separated from his wife took his 2 year old son while his wife and the child were coming back home from nursery school. There is nothing written about the couple being divorced, only 'while separated.' The judges concluded that it was a crime of abduction. The father was sentenced to 1 year in prison, suspended for 4 years. (cached copy) 

• Parents, experts urge Japan to sign child custody treaty; Mainichi Daily News; December 4, 2005.  An article based on the Seminar on the Hague Convention and International Child Abduction at Canadian Embassy. (cached copy)

• When parents turn kidnappers; Daily Yomiuri, December 3, 2005.  A discussion about the problem of Japanese citizens who internationally abduct their children to Japan and use the courts to help deny access to the non-Japanese parent.  The article interviews two left-behind parents whose Japanese spouses have done this.  This is a welcome change from the recent spate of "Japanese parents wronged by foreign spouse" articles in the Japanese media.

• 国際的な子の奪取の民事面に関するハーグ条約 : マウラ・ハーティー米国国務次官補（領事業務担当）; US Embassy in Japan website; December 3, 2005; (cached copy) Comments on Japan and the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction from Maura Harty, US Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs of the State Department.

• 別居中の子を連れ去り、父親でも犯罪成立　最高裁決定; 朝日新聞; 2005年12月09日. (cached copy)  (Article in Japanese only) A father who was separated from his wife took his 2 year old son while his wife and the child were coming back home from nursery school. There is nothing written about the couple being divorced, only 'while separated.' The judges concluded that it was a crime of abduction. The father was sentenced to 1 year in prison, suspended for 4 years.

• Lawyer arrested over daughter's abduction; Japan Today, October 23, 2005.  A lawyer and former judge abducts his 3 year old daughter after his wife was granted custody and then had the grandparents adopt the daughter.  This is interesting because the abduction took place on the day he was supposed to be participating in visitation proceedings.  (This tidbit is not in these articles but comes from someone who saw it on TV.)   The involvement of private detectives suggests he had to pay someone to even find out where his child was.  Part of the issue was also apparently that after getting custody, the mother then had the child adopted by her parents. This shows that the more familiar you get with the system, the more useless you know it to be.  Several articles appeared in Japanese also.  (cached copy)

  • 実子略取の弁護士逮捕　親権めぐり争い　登校中、連れ去る; 西日本新聞; 2005年10月6日;  (cached copy)
  • 福岡で元妻と暮らす小３娘を連れ去る～弁護士を現行犯で逮捕; 九州発 : 読売新聞; 2005年10月 6日; (cached copy)
  • 別れた小３娘を連れ去る、容疑の弁護士逮捕…福岡県警; 読売新聞 (Yomiuri Online); 2005年10月 6日 ( cached copy)
  • 長女連れ去り事件の弁護士、初公判で起訴事実認める…福岡地裁; 九州発 : 読売新聞 ; 2005年12月22日; It seems the court case has just started but it does say "The defendant, Watanabe, was identified as threatening and hitting the girl as she resisted inside the 'getaway' car."  Watanabe, in his deposition, was quoted as saying "as a lawyer he should have considered carefully whether his action was a crime or not." And "his only thought was that he wanted to raise his daughter as his own." (cached copy)

• Globalization of divorce: The downside of international romance turned sour; Yomiuri Shinbun; October 15, 2005.  A generally disgusting article that is likely the result of someone trying to rev up the Japanese media machine to justify the increasing number of international parental abductions by Japanese citizens.  But if you read carefully, it confirms that 1) Japan does not feel the need to observe international convention on jurisdiction nor decisions of non-Japanese family courts.  2) one child visitation per year is reasonable in Japan 3) Child visitation law is so non-existent in Japan, that even a Japanese citizen needs to use overseas laws. (cached copy)

• Heartache for parents caught in overseas custody battles; Stars and Stripes; October 9, 2005; A general article about legal issues involved with international parental abduction which mentions Japan. (cached copy)

• Please Bring My Sons Back From Japan; That's Life Magazine Australia; 2005; Detailed story of kidnapping of Anthony and Jorge Obiso by Sachi Shimada to Japan. (page1  page 2)

• Dad in vigil for stolen sons; The Sunday Mail QLD; June 12, 2005; Story about Sachi Shimada who abducted sons Anthony and Jorge to Japan, away from their father, George Obiso. (cached copy)

• Yamila Castellanos: “I know that I will recover my daughter.”; Cosas.com; April 15, 2005.  (original Spanish) Recounts Yamila's story including details before the abductions.  Tells that she had to leave Japan because she was denied a visa, even though she was participating in a legal battle in court. (cached copy)

• Why we’re powerless to get back abducted children; Vancouver Sun; March 15, 2005; "Murray Wood had no idea last November when he kissed 10-year-old Takara and seven-year-old Manami goodbye at Vancouver International Airport that his ex-wife was abducting them...";  (cached copy)

• Torn between their parents: Murray Wood believed the best care for his two children would be to share their custody with his ex-wife. He hasn't seen them since November; Vancouver Sun; March 15, 2005; "Like most stories of parental abductions, this one began with love...";  (cached copy)

• IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES: Kids held `hostage' after international marriages fail; Asahi Herald Tribune on January 29, 2005; AERA magazine on December 4, 2004.  Although undeniably intended for a readership of Japanese women, this article does illustrate child related problems in international marriages.  It was also published in AERA, in Japanese, and mentions CRN Japan. (English cached copy)

• Yamila Castellanos held a protest at the Japanese embassy in Chile to ask for help getting her daughter back, who was abducted by her Japanese father. Two articles including videos.  Madre sigue luchando por recuperar a hija llevada por su padre a Japón (cached copy)  Padres apoyan a madre que fue separada de su hija (cached copy)

• Newsday.com series on International Child Abductions.   An excellent online series about worldwide child abductions (successful and failed) and details a number of reverse abductions to bring children home.  It also includes names of individuals who helped the parents (I have cached copies of all articles, so if these links ever break or the articles go away, let me know and I will put them up here.)

• Options few after mom abducts girl - Courts hold no clout for a Honolulu man whose daughter, 5, was taken to Japan; Honolulu Star Bulletin; December 6, 2004.  Alan Kaneda's story about his wife abducting their daughter Marina to Japan.  (cached copy)

• Utah custody battle involves feds, Japan; Deseret Morning News; October 25, 2004.  Mike Gulbraa's story continues, with the surprising revelation that despite their well-known television commercials in the US focusing on the best interests of children, "One entity that has resisted getting involved has been The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which the divorced couple remain members."  (cached copy)

• When Children Get Caught Up In Separation; Eye-Ai, Eye On Society; June 4, 2004.  This article was partially based on interviews with Japan CRN members, and so contains information on a variety of issues including lack of visitation, not signing the Hague Convention on International Parental Abduction, need for a Parent of Japanese Child visa, and Yamila's case.  Includes some Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare statistics on international divorces and children born out of wedlock.

• Divorced Japanese struggle for right to see kids  (日本語版 / Japanese) Reuters; February 8, 2004.   An interview with Japanese members of Fathers' Website.  "Rising divorce rates mean hundreds of thousands more children are being affected each year. In 2002, there were 2.3 divorces per thousand people, roughly double the rate 25 years earlier and comparable with the 2.4 per thousand level in Germany. Around 300,000 children were involved." Yet one lawyer estimates that between half and a third of divorced people in Japan are unable to contact their children.

• Japan - A Haven for International Child Abduction?  Hiragana Times; December, 2003.  This bilingual article in the Hiragana Times magazine starts by comparing the issue of Japanese abductees to Korea with that of Japanese parental kidnapping.  It is one of, if not *the* first Japanese language articles published in Japan on the subject, and features quotes from two CRC Japan participants.  (cached copy)

• Tales from Japan's Abandoned Foreign Parents; The Japan Observer; November 2003.  Mostly the story of Frans Pau, a French-Danish national whose wife is kidnapped their child Isabelle, abandoned her in a children's home, took her again after Frans got her into a school in Japan.  The mother has been sentenced to jail by a French court and is wanted by Interpol. A Japanese court allowed the mother to change Isabelle's name to Maki despite the fact that Frans had legal custody, even in Japan.  After that, a Japanese court inexplicably gave custody back to the mother.  (cached copy)

• Chilean fights to obtain the safekeeping of her daughter (Original Spanish: Chilena lucha por lograr la custodia de su hija);  International Press; October 24, 2003.  Article on Yamila Castellanos in a Spanish language newspaper in Tokyo.  (cached copy of original)

• Chilean consulate follows the case of Yamila  (Original Spanish: Consulado chileno sigue el caso de Yamila); International Press; August 11, 2003. (cached copy of original)

• Divorced From Their Children In Japan, Foreign Fathers Have Few Custody Options;   (日本語版/ Japanese）Washington Post;  July 17, 2003; Page A09.    Four fathers with stories of Japanese mothers "legally abducting" their children to or in Japan.  The Japanese government continues to be a haven for child abductors. (cached copy)

• Divorce your Japanese wife - and lose your kids; July 19, 2003; Asia One.  Recap of the problems and several cases from a Singapore publication. (cached copy)

• Imperfect Alliance U.S., Japan at odds about child abductions; Newsday.com; July 17, 2003.  More coverage of Walter Benda whose wife was indicted for felony international parental kidnapping in the US. (cached copy)

• South Jordan Dad Longs for Sons Spirited Away to Japan by Mom; Salt Lake City Tribune; January 19, 2003.  The mother of Michael Gulbraa two sons is charged with two counts of third degree felony for custodial interference and federal counts of international parental kidnapping and aiding and abetting a fugitive. Japanese authorities continue to claim there has been no crime.   (cached copy)

• Estranged parents snatch own kids in `abduction friendly' Japan Asahi Shinbun Online; January 27, 2002 A good overview on the subject, with quotes from multiple victims of this crime as well as experts on related subjects. (cached copy)

• Parents driven to 'kidnap' children; The Japan Times; December 13, 2000.  Discusses Engle Nieman's case as well as David Brian Thomas.  (cached copy)

• The best parents are both parents; Japan Times; February 6, 2000.  David Brian Thomas' story in detail. (cached copy)

• Parents in International Custody Battles Fear Impact; Washington Post; February 3, 2000.  Information on various worldwide parental abduction cases in the light of the Elian Gonzalez incident in the US. Included is Walter Benda's well known Japan case.   (cached copy)

• International Parental Child Abduction - Japan; US State Department document explaining the dangers of parental abduction and other family law problems in Japan.  This has also appeared on the US embassy in Japan website.

• Access Denied Children innocent victims of custody battles; Daily Yomiuri; December 11, 1999.   An article with several cases of Japanese parents being denied access by other Japanese parents.  Same story of using the children as weapons. (cached copy)

• Lost In A Loophole: Foreigners Who Are on the Losing End of a Custody Battle in Japan Don't Have Much Recourse; Los Angeles Times, September 19, 1996.  Stories of Walter Benda, David Brian Thomas, Dale Martin and Charles Talley.  Describes how lack of a "parent of Japanese child" visa gives an abducting spouse power, how a hanko can be used for forgery, and quotes a Japanese Foreign Ministry official on why Japan does not need to sign the Hague Convention on International Parental Abduction.

• The Japanese said I no longer had a child; The Independent, July 10, 1996. Very detailed story about David Brian Thomas's loss of his son to his Japanese spouse Mikako Takezawa and her father Hajime Takezawa. (cached copy)