Visitation, even if ordered, is inadequate

Even if visitation is specified by a Japanese court, it is incredibly limited, usually only a couple hours per month.  The responsibility to ensure regular visitation is a direct consequence of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by Japan in its entirety on May 22nd 1994.  Article nine of this treaty obligates Japan to "Respect the right of the child who is separated from one or both parents to maintain personal contact with both parents on a regular basis."

When granted, which is less than 20% of the time, the periods of visitation are not sufficient for the child to “know and be cared for” nor to “maintain personal contact on a regular basis” with the non-custodial parent.  Visitation is often measured in terms of a few hours per month and is very often supervised, in a sterile environment, with the frequently hostile custodial parent nearby.  There is little opportunity to establish meaningful relationships with children who have to survive with the custodial parent.  Visitation rulings further discriminate against a child with foreign family by not allowing the child to leave Japan for vacations or to see distant or ill relatives unable to travel to Japan.

Note: I have been told by someone who works for a court that "courts do NOT rule on visitation, only on custody."  We are trying to verify this. It may be the case that the court negotiate a settlement, then has the parties sign a Divorce By Mutual consent plus a personal civil agreement concerning money and visitation.  One case like this is known.

Solutions We Want To See

• Enact national laws requiring adequate visitation between a child and his or her non-custodial parent.  This should include visitation guidelines including but not limited to (i) minimum unsupervised visitation hours per week; (ii) weekly overnight stays; (iii) separate vacation time per year allowing overseas travel when one parent is not a Japanese citizen, subject to adequate protections to ensure return; and (iv) permissible conditions for denial of any of these guidelines.  These should be based on consultation of the many publicly available reference guidelines, such as these sample of child visitation guidelines.  Finally, the law should require that all judicial visitation determinations state specifically why the determination is “in the best interests” of the children it affects.

• Completely separate custody and visitation determinations from divorce, to prevent access to children from being used as a bargaining tool in divorce.

• Sanction lawyers who persist in recommending that their clients deny child visitation with the other parent as a bargaining chip in a divorce or tolerate this sort of behavior in their clients.

• Combine visitation proceedings with custody proceedings.  Require it to be standard practice that preliminary visitation rights are awarded immediately upon commencement and enforced throughout.  Absent special circumstances, a child should not go without seeing a parent for more than two weeks while proceedings are under way.  Whether the parties respect such rights must be a key factor in the ultimate custody award.

• Unless there is strong and verified evidence indicating abuse has taken place, as noted in Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, courts should approve mandatory unsupervised visitation throughout a divorce or other custody or visitation related case. Even with strong and verified evidence, visitation in a supervised environment should be considered.

Documented Cases

• Osaka Family Court case #7017 of March 19 Heisei 13, which granted the legally recognized custodial parent only one three hour visitation per year, is a particularly egregious example of inadequate visitation.
• OTHER VISITATION EXAMPLES I HAVE.

Articles

• Parents' rights a demographic issue; The Japan Times; July 18, 2006; Law professor from Doshisha University in Kyoto postulates that prejudices against men in the family law and courts might be effecting Japan's plummeting birth rate. (cached copy)