Abductions on the Rise

(Blowing in the Wind: In the U.S.A)

Mainichi Shinbun, Evening Edition
August 28, 2006
Japanese Source: http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/shakai/wadai/archive/news/2006/08/28/20060828dde012070009000c.html
English translation by Japan Children's Rights Network

At a theatre in Hollywood, I watched the documentary “Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story” [Title in Japan: Abduction (A Family Torn Apart for 30 Years)] about Megumi Yokota who was abducted by North Korea. The producer Chris Sheridan talked. “Japanese see the abduction problem as a political one, but I took it as a human problem. The people of any country can understand the suffering of the family of an abducted 13 year old.”

Leaving the theatre, there was an American man calling out to each member of the audience, “Did you see Abduction?” To those who answered “I did” he handed a flyer saying “Japanese are also abducting children.”

Patrick (46) dated a Japanese woman, and in April of last year, they had a daughter. But while pregnant, the relationship started to chill, and 11 months after their daughter was born, during the middle of a custody trial, he says that she took their child and returned to Japan.

Of course there are aspects of this that are different from the North Korean government’s abduction of Megumi Yokota. But in America, one parent taking a child away without the consent of the other parent is a well recognized crime. The parent will become wanted for the crime of kidnapping.

In America, where half of the marriages break apart, it is common thinking that even if the parents separate, the children belong to both parents, and that both parents are responsible for bringing them up. A counselor who has seen many acrimonious child custody trials says, “A person whose heart is injured by the breakup of a loving relationship may try to get revenge on their partner by not allowing them to see their child. You have to tell that kind of person over and over that the breakup has to do with them, and has no connection with the child.”

Overseas, a Japanese woman who is worried about an unfavorable judgment in a custody trial and kidnaps her child back to Japan, has severely misjudged American law and culture. In fact, photographs of Japanese women are lined up on the FBI’s (United States Federal Bureau of Investigation) wanted list.

According to the US State Department, 37 kidnappings by Japanese have been reported until now and 18 of them have occurred since last year. Countries that are signatories to the international agreement “the Convention on Child Abduction [sic]” have the responsibility to cooperate and return a kidnapped child to their original country, but Japan is not a signatory. The countries of Europe and America are pressuring for Japan to sign this treaty and criticizing Japan as a “Kidnapping Heaven.”

Even an hour after the movie ended, Patrick continued to distribute the flyers. I thought that associating this with the North Korean abductions was a little aggressive, but I can understand a father’s feeling that “The feeling that your child has been kidnapped is the same. For the child and myself, it’s just not fair.”

[Thanks to this blog for finding the article.]

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