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Resource Topic: Child Trafficking

Left-behind dad’s last resort: Impeach Japan’s Supreme Court judges

James Cook is relentless. His four children were abducted to Japan from Minnesota by his Japanese wife in 2014. This was after Japan acceded to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, so he might have had hope in the early days. Using the baroque procedural regime the Diet passed for […]

Australian father gets suspended term for trespassing at in-law’s Tokyo home

A Tokyo-based Australian journalist and father was given a suspended prison term of six months by the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday for illegally trespassing into a building complex where his in-laws live in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward in October, in what the journalist said was an attempt to check on his children after a powerful […]

European lawmakers chide Japan over abduction of children by a parent

BRUSSELS – European lawmakers lobbied by fathers unable to see children taken by Japanese mothers urged Tokyo on Tuesday to combat the abduction of minors by one parent and change a law that does not recognize joint custody after a split. In a resolution passed unanimously, the European Parliament’s petitions committee said it was concerned about […]

Hague jars with Japan’s family law, a zero-sum game with only one outcome

On April 1, the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction went into force in Japan, as did the necessary implementing legislation. Having already written about this legislation in a prior column, I won’t revisit the subject here. While Japan’s accession is a welcome step forward, I wonder how it will actually pan […]

In Japan, foreign parents lead charge against loss of child custody

A growing number of foreign nationals in Japan are speaking out against what they say is a little-known but entrenched system that allows one parent in a broken relationship to take away children and block the other from visiting them. The issue of what domestic and overseas media call parental child “abduction” has regained international […]

Film sheds light on plight of left-behind parents

The documentary film “From The Shadows,” completed last December, features five left-behind parents and their struggles to reconnect with their children. During a recent interview with The Japan Times, producer and director David Hearn stressed that he was motivated to make the film to raise awareness and understanding. In the 6½ years it took to […]