Known Successful Legal Strategies

• Although not a comprehensive solution, here is a document describing a man who sued his wife in Japanese court for 5 Million Yen and won, because she would not let him see their child.  We have an English summary also.  (There are many more court cases documented on our cases page.)  Only Japanese for now, will try to get an English translation. But even if you did this, what would happen next? Is the wife now absolved, legally, of her previous violations of the court order? If she keeps doing it could he sue again? If doable, this would be a good tool to use. She would now have that much less money to spend on a lawyer to appeal the contempt of court ruling over and over.  And it would make a point to others. But its not a solution.  Of course if you could sue her again in 6 months to a year and win a non-negligible amount of money, she may eventually be forced financially to give in depending on her situation. Someone has also said that judicial precedent in Japan is not as highly regarded as in the United States.  (Comments?)   There are a few more details in English here, http://www.frij.net/caseforchange.html which was written by a Japanese from http://www.fatherswebsite.com  The relevant pieces are:

  A judicial precedent was set regarding parental custody laws when a man, denied the right to see his child sued in Shizuoka District Court and was awarded five million yen in damages. The court decided that, It is natural that the father would want to see his child , and declared that, when children are unable to see their fathers, they could possibly lose the ability to recognize them. This is akin to consciously taking their right away.
  Finally, and almost pointedly appropriate, the Shizuoka District Court ruled that it is unjust to take away the father's right to see their child for no other reason than jealous emotion.

• Another parent writes:

  Under section 172 of the civil Enforcement act a court can order the defendant to pay a large penalty for everyday he/she refuses to perform. There is a case about a mother with court appointed legal custody over her four year old daughter and could not induce the husband to give her up. Instead of kidnapping the daughter she sued him. The court gave the man 3 weeks to give her up or pay the mother 30,000yenn for each day that he failed to comply.  With this if the defendant refuses to comply with the per diem order the judge can jail the defendant. He is also allowed to remove the child from the father with force. There are numerous cases where judges use the per diem act to enforce their orders.  This idea and the following two cases came from this book.

  Case Name: Uchimura vs Kumamoto nishi zeimu shocho, 135 Zeimu sosho shiryo 200 (Kumamoto D. Ct. Feb. 27, 1984), aff'd,144 Zeimu sosho shiryo 357 (Fukuoka High Ct. Feb.28, 1985)

• I have not confirmed the details with the father yet, but from reading various articles, it seems that as though his wife abducted their children in Japan, yet was indicted on a felony kidnapping charge in the US.  It seems to be holding up.  This would put her into jail if she ever came into the US, which apparently her current job demands.  This could be a very interesting route to pursue for non-Japanese citizens if these details are correct.  See the articles section for more information..