The recent AP article run in the Japan Times on 10/1/2010 states, “The Japanese Embassy said in a statement that Japan is sympathetic to the plight of children caught in custody battles between Japanese and American citizens and ‘is continuing to make sincere efforts to deal with this issue from the standpoint that the welfare of the child should be of the utmost importance.‘” US House of Representatives H. Res. 1326, which demands Japan put an end to child abuse in its country in the form of child abduction and access denial, elicited the Japanese embassy response. The resolution passed [Continue Reading...]

IAPCR would like to share some older articles written in 1999 and 2000 by Timothy Maier. He focused on Europe and the Middle East but the problems he writes about are the same problems we face today in Japan and many other countries all over the world. Mr. Maier constantly criticized the State Department for their incompetence. All of the obstacles we face today were present 10 years ago (the way State classifies cases, how countries are seen as compliant or non-compliant in relation to the Hague, misleading Congress, unwillingness to protect its own citizens, unwillingness to prosecute child abductors, [Continue Reading...]

Asahi Broadcasting Corporation in Osaka did a story about international divorce and the state of Family Law in Japan. They focused on 2 cases, Craig Morrey and Yuka Yamanaka. Craig’s ex moved to Yamaguchi-ken with their daughter and left Craig to care for his severely handicapped son all by himself. Craig rarely gets to meet his daughter. Craig, as most divorced parents, is extremely unhappy with the family court system. He is working with many people in Japan and America to change the Family Law System in Japan. Yuka’s children live in America and her ex refuses to let the [Continue Reading...]

Eleven years ago (April of 1999), First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Cherie Booth, the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, were the principal guest speakers at the launch of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC). It was a new British-American initiative to find missing children worldwide and to stamp out cross-border child abduction. Secretary Clinton has finally spoken about our issue (her issue?) but she has not spoken with passion. One would think this issue is still important to her but we have not seen any significant progress over the last year even though Secretary Clinton [Continue Reading...]

Colin Jones is a law professor at Doshisha University in Kyoto. He has studied Japanese Family Law, Child Custody, Divorce, and Parental Abduction for the last 6 years. He did an interview in the summer of 2009 about Japanese Family Courts and why they do what they do. The interview can be found on youtube. As always Colin is very incite-full. If you want to learn more about the Family Court System in Japan please watch the 50 minute interview. (It is a five part series each being 10 minutes).

Colin Jones, law professor at Doshisha University in Kyoto, has written a paper titled “IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE COURT:  WHAT AMERICAN LAWYERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CHILD CUSTODY AND VISITATION IN JAPAN”. The title speaks for itself. If you are divorced, thinking about getting a divorce, or know someone that is divorced, I highly recommend that they read this long and informative paper about the Family Courts in Japan. Professor Jones discusses judges, mediators, investigators, custody (shinken & kangoken), visitation rights, and more. You can read the full 104 page pdf report here.

On July 26, Ken Thompson whose 5 year old boy Andrew was abducted from Australia by his mother in April of 2008, whereabouts still unknown, is set to meet with the Hague’s First Secretary of the Permanent Bureau to discuss Hague successes and steps to further prevent and solve parental child abduction. If you would like to become a signatory to this letter, go into his site today. If you haven’t, do take a look at Ken’s journey to find his son. Ken began cycling across Europe in May in search of his son and to protest child abduction. Through [Continue Reading...]

My name is Randy Collins. My son, Keisuke Christian Collins, was illegally abducted by his Japanese mother, Reiko Nakata Greenberg Collins on June 16, 2008. The last day I saw Keisuke was Fathers Day, June 15, 2008. Reiko violated preexisting California Superior Court orders and fled to live with her parents, Ken and Miyuki Nakata in Yotsukaido, Japan. Since that time, I have dedicated my life to getting Keisuke back home. I have traveled to Washington DC numerous times to raise awareness of Japan’s stance of sanctioning and endorsing the abduction of hundreds of American children. On May 5, 2010 [Continue Reading...]

A father would like to request your help in finding his two sons, who will be 10 and 7 this year. Here’s a brief summary of what he told IAPCR: I have been in Japan for nearly 20 years (married for 17), and I filed for divorce in January when I could no longer accept my wife’s increasing abuse of my three children (I have a daughter who just turned 13). My wife has also been in an ongoing affair since 2007. My wife and I began mediation, and at the end of March, she suddenly abducted all three children [Continue Reading...]

For your average dad, Father’s Day means a handmade card from the kids, a new necktie or bottle of cologne, and hugs and kisses all around from those they love. But for a determined group of left-behind fathers and mothers last Sunday, Father’s Day instead meant a very vocal protest march through the streets of Shibuya Ward in Tokyo. Organized by the Meetup group Left Behind Parents Japan, an assemblage of around 50 parents who have lost access to their children, together with their supporters, unfurled banners, carried picket signs, and with bullhorns shouted slogans in both English and Japanese [Continue Reading...]