Divorce In Japan
1. Divorce rates are rising in
Japan. There were 2.3 divorces per thousand
people in 2002, which is comparable to rates in other developed countries, and
about 300,000 Japanese children were involved.
2. In Japan, however, there are no joint custody
laws, only sole custody. Also, visitation rights are not stipulated in any
laws, so there are many cases in which parents with no custody rights after
divorce are kept from seeing their own children. One can appeal for visitation
through arbitration, but the considerable time needed and the unreliability of
the courts often compels the plaintiff to withdraw the appeal. While parents
have difficulties seeing their sons and daughters, it goes without saying that
there are no written visitation rights for grandparents either. Out of all the
G8 and developed countries of the world,
Japan is virtually the only country that does
not have joint custody or visitation rights.
3. This injustice has lead to one of the
biggest tragedies in Japanese family law history; the
Osaka abuse case discovered in January. A 15
year old boy, found dying of starvation and continuous abuse from his father
and step mother, is still in a coma now. The arrested father, with sole custody
over the child, had rejected his ex-wife窶冱 pleas to see her own child. This
tragedy could have been avoided if she could have seen her son and been
involved in his upbringing. Aside from better and quicker actions by child
consultation centers and schools, joint custody and visitation rights are the
most important issues to establish and maintain in the relationship between
divorced parents and their children.
4. Uncontested divorce, an extra-judicial
process unique to Japan, is possible with just the signatures of
the divorcing parties. 90% of divorces in
Japan are uncontested. But because this process
does not consider child custody or visitation rights, there are many parents in
Japan that are unable to see their own
children.
5. Only when both of the parties are
unable to reconcile custody and financial conditions do divorcing parents go to
arbitration or trial. But with there being no official
marriage counseling centers in Japan, many issues go
unconsidered as arbitrations and trial proceedings only superficially settle
custody and financial issues, and give little regard to child welfare. In about 80% of Japanese divorces, the
wife wins the custody battle. And it is said that 60% of the parents with no
child custody are kept from seeing their children after divorce. This means
that almost half of divorced fathers are cut off from their sons and daughters.
6. Arbitrations and trials are inclined to
value the maintenance of the 窶彡urrent status窶・ This condition then leads to
窶徼he person who grabs the kids first wins窶・ This causes a painful repetition of
窶彡hild abduction窶・between Japanese couples. Recently, we at Fathers窶・Website
have been receiving an increasing number of similar reports saying, 窶弩hile I
was at work, my wife suddenly left me and returned to her parents窶・house taking
our child. Then she sued me with a cooked up domestic violence scheme and I
can窶冲 see my child anymore窶・(insert Japanese
reference). There are however few legal recourses to this situation.
For example, as a guideline, the Tokyo 1st Bar Association created a
handbook called, Scramble for Children
and its Solutions. This guideline seems to totally ignore child welfare,
and actually encourages child abduction. We are afraid.
7. In 1994,
Japan ratified the United Nations 窶廚onvention
on the Rights of the Child窶・ But
still, in 2004, there are blatant contradictions between the Convention and
Japanese Parental Law. For example, Article 9 Paragraph 3,
directs Japan to 窶徨espect the right of the child who is
separated from one or both parents to maintain personal relations and direct
contact with both parents on a
regular basis, except if it is contrary to the child's best interests.窶・ The situations that we have
described, demonstrate that this Article is not always applied in
Japan.
Since the Convention also obliges
Japan to enact national laws supporting it,
these situations are Illegal in
Japan.
Yet they continue because
Japan does not change Parental Laws.
8. From April 2004, divorce trials will be
transferred from the District Court to the Family Court. But unless the
parental and family laws are revised, and the Family Court system is improved,
only monetary affairs will be considered and child welfare and the happiness of
children will again be ignored.
9. These problems influence not only
domestic relationships but also international relationships as well, which CRC
Japan will explain.
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