17 year old son abducted by Japanese mother contacts father after 10 years

Documented: February 28, 2004
Updated October 8, 2006

Although this page originally documented this story in a great amount of detail, as part of the arrangement for seeing his son again, the father has agreed to remove the information.  So most story details and all personal details have been removed.  More details of how the son found his father will be added in the future, as the story unfolds.

1996 - The Japanese mother and American father divorce in Japan, and the divorce agreement specifies visitation with 7 year old son, PZ.  The Japanese mother subsequently denied visitation anyways.  The American father went to a Japanese court, but the court could not enforce the agreement.  The Japanese mother remarried, moved out of Japan and hide her location.

December 25, 1996 - Last time American father saw son, PZ.

In the intervening years, while living overseas, neither in Japan nor the United States, PZ had some behavior problems and was sent to boarding school for a time by his mother and step-father.  His step brothers and/or sisters do not appear to have had the same problems.

February 28, 2004 - The original story with full names of all people involved, including the mother, father, son, step father, name of step father's company and information about their suspected location was documented on Japan Children's Rights Network and in other locations on the Internet.  This was a very aggressive internet campaign with a separate website dedicated to the search for PZ.

Sometime in 2006 (?) - 17 year old PZ makes contact with his father based on information about himself found on the internet. (It is unclear whether this contact was actually made in 2006 or some time, perhaps even years earlier.)

late 2006 - Father meets son for first time in ten years.

END