Birth Out of Wedlock Outside of Japan

See also our sections on Nichi - Acknowledgement of Paternity and Birth Out Of Wedlock in Japan.

Under Japanese laws, the father of a child born out of wedlock has no rights whatsoever by default. The mother is automatically declared the custodial parent upon birth and he has no rights whatsoever by default. It is a clear case of gender discrimination in the law. I can reference the exact code where it says this, and can provide both Japanese and English versions quickly. <add reference to Japanese civil code in English and Japanese>  (Search the website, as it is already here somewhere, I think in the report to the United Nations on the Convention on the Rights of the Child treaty.

Important notes on Japanese law

• Civil Code Article 772.  A child must be born at least 200 days after the parents marry to be considered legitimate under Japanese law. That is, unless the child would be deemed legitimate under the laws of your country, in which case it's not a problem... Confusing, no?  If you got married less than 200 days ago, it may be that the child is simply listed as son or daughter rather than 1st, 2nd, 3rd son or daughter.
• Civil Code Article 772.  Children conceived during wedlock are considered the legitimate offspring of the husband. If your husband is not the father, you can go to court to have the father-child relationship annulled.  But this is unlikely to be healthy for your marriage. Likewise, a husband can contest his paternity in court.
• Civil Code Article 772.  If a woman has a child within 300 days of getting divorced, s/he will still be considered the legitimate offspring of her ex-husband. This relationship can be annulled in court.  In fact, it MUST be annulled before another man is able to submit a ninchi-todoke.  If the wife is not willing to bring this lawsuit, the real father can also bring this lawsuit and via that require DNA testing for the child.

Japanese Mother (I am the father)

The fact that a father has no rights in Japan may help you get a court restraining order to prevent the mother from taking your child back home to Japan -- a potential abduction.  (In some places there are special laws, such as the Synclair Cannon Act in California, that make this easy in cases like this, given that Japan has not signed the Hague Convention.)

Also, in order to prepare for possible abduction, the father should immediately go down to the Japanese consulate and tell them that he wants to declare himself a parent, on a "ninchi todoke" form. (This is a good idea anyways so that your child will know who his/her natural parent really is.)  If he has his name as a father on a birth certificate, it should be no problem. The only issues is finding out where her honseki is. i.e. the gov office in charge of her koseki. He will have to ask the consulate for how to do this. Or alternately, he should get the US court to order her to tell him, so that he can register his paternity in Japan also. Now this wont help him unless she abducts their child, but in that case, it will save him a lot of time and money. Without doing this, he would likely have to spend a lot of time AFTER the abduction to do the same thing. So might as well do it now, and get the US court to help.

If the mother has not registered the birth in Japan yet, things get tricky.  If you were in Japan, you could force the issue and get the government office to pursue the mother.  It is a minor crime to not report a birth within 30 days within Japan.  She might have more time when outside of Japan. Although technically, if she doesn't declare it when outside of Japan, I think the child just doesn't get Japanese citizenship. But this can be dealt with later by the mother, if necessary.  Certainly the mother can always get a long term visa for a child, even if it is not a citizen, yet.  So you should try to force the issue.  In the long run, if the worst case occurs, it will save you time in court and money to establish paternity.

Japanese Father (I am the mother)

Technically, in case of abduction, he could go to court in Japan and ask for visitation, which is NOT guaranteed by law, even for a married parent.  But in my opinion, he is going to have even less chance than anyone else, given that he is a foreigner and unwed father. 

Citizenship

For information on how your child might acquire Japanese citizenship, see our page on Japanese Citizenship and the Nationality Law.  Note that the situation is very much different for a foreign mother and for a foreign father.

Resources

• TBD - References to laws on Nichi
• TBD - References to laws on mother getting custody of child born out of wedlock
• TBD - References to adoption

Press Articles

• Ex-husband dragged through court system over paternity of post-divorce baby; Mainichi Daily News; January 18, 2007. Japanese fathers must go to court and give intimate details of life before divorce to prove they are not fathers of children born after a divorce. (cached copy)

• New divorcees push for DNA testing to be allowed to prove paternity of newborn children; Mainichi Shinbun, January 8, 2007.  Japanese mothers want DNA testing to be recognized as conclusive proof of teh father even if child born within 300 days of divorce.