Japanese courts do not recognize foreign custody orders

The long list of Japanese citizens wanted for international parental kidnapping shows that there are many cases of a non-Japanese parent having a custody order in another country, and the Japanese parent abducting the child to Japan. Once this happens, despite the child having a habitual residence in the other country, the Japanese courts will not recognize these orders.   International law indicates that the Japanese court should do nothing but disqualify itself from jurisdiction. In our experience, almost always fails to honor foreign custody orders, particularly when one parent is Japanese.

The custodial parent can pursue this in Japanese court, but court cases in Japan can take years.  Even after several years, the final argument often ends up being that the child is now acclimated to Japan, so should not be removed from the country.  Documentation from Japanese court decrees contained within the cases below make this quite clear.

At present, Japan does not enforce child custody orders from foreign countries, nor is parental kidnapping deemed a crime there.  (Source: a report written by the Directorate of Legal Research of the Law Library of Congress in response to requests from the US Congress. (cached copy))

The Department of State is not aware of any case in which a child taken from the United States by one parent has been ordered returned to the United States by Japanese courts, even when the left-behind parent has a United States custody decree.  (Source: US State Dept website "International Parental Abduction - Japan" (cached copy))

U.S. court custody decisions are not enforceable in Japan....The Japanese government will not refuse entry to one of its citizens, even if that citizen is a dual-national child subject to a U.S. court-based custody decision.  (Source: US Consular Information Sheet for Japan (cached copy))

This is also an example of racial discrimination, since most, and very likely all foreign custody orders challenged in Japan will be those of a non-Japanese parent.

Solutions We Want To See

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Cases

• Murray Wood 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.

• "...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.)

Articles

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