Over 3,200 US citizens, children living in Japan with an American (USA) parent, are being denied access to one of their parents. This based on 16 years, 1992 – 2007, of Japanese Government statistics.

It is estimated that at least 96,247 children with one non-Japanese parent are being denied access to one of their parents. This is a global issue being perpetrated against children, with blood connections to nations around the world.

This is data on Japanese vital statistics reported by MHLW: divorces for 16 years from 1992 to 2007. These are the numbers of children who experience denial of access to their parent.

The far left column indicates different types of divorce by nationality. The second column indicates the number of divorces for each type. The third column indicates the percentage of divorces where there is denial of access. The fourth column indicates the number of children who experience denial of access. The numbers for this column are obtained by multiplying the number in column two by the percentage in column three.

There have been 6,514 divorces between an American and Japanese spouse in Japan for the 16 years from 1992 to 2007. [1,2]

There have been 192,494 divorces where one parent is a foreigner. This includes all nationalities. [1,2]

The total number of divorces in Japan in that period has been 3,853,787. This includes divorces where both spouses are Japanese as well as international divorces. [1,2]

On average, the trend has been one child per divorce during the same period, 1992 to 2007. We can see that the trend in the number of children resulting from a marriage closely tracks the number of divorces. [3]

Data from the Supreme Court of Japan available through NHK books [4] indicates the percentage of divorces where there is denial of access. Let’s consider this a situation where a parent and child see each other less than one time per month regardless of whether the court or custodial parent consider this access. At the least, this is insufficient access.

For these calculations, we considered anything of less than one time every 2 months as ‘denial of access’. But in a very large number of these cases, access to children doesn’t exist at all.

This is a massive human rights tragedy occurring in a G7 country. The law in Japan grants legal custody to one parent. Often, that parent denies the children access to the other parent. Denying a child access to his/her parent causes severe psychological damage and is child abuse. This damage affects a person’s view of life and relationships that is often dysfunctional resulting in perpetuation of the abuse when the abused child becomes a parent in turn. The universal human rights of children in Japan are being violated by having access to their parent denied. The US State Department, US embassy, and US  and Japanese governments must act to resolve this human rights tragedy.

References

[1] http://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/saikin/hw/jinkou/suii05/divo2.html

[2] http://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/saikin/hw/jinkou/suii07/divo2.html

[3] report on MHLW vital statistics trend up to 2008, (PDF) graph on page 35: “Trends in divorces by person having custody of children, and number of dependent children involved, 1950-2008″

http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/database/db-hw/dl/81-1b2.pdf

[4] データで読む家族問題 (Family Issues – Reading the Data) by Yuzawa Yasuhiko and Miyamoto Michiko, NHK Books, 2008 (and 2003), ISBN-10: 4140911255, Publisher: 日本放送出版協会 (2008/11), Japan Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare (MHLW) data crunched through 2007, pages 202 – 217 of particular interest.

Related posts:

1. Japan Condemned for Child Abduction &
   Denial of Access by US House of Representatives
2. Japan is Making Sincere Efforts?