Fast Facts on Parental Child Abduction in Japan

# of couples to divorce	240,000 couples/year
# of children to lose access to non-residential parents	160,000/year
Parental authority	Single parental authority (Japan is the only one in G7. Other G7 nations adopt joint parental authority)
Hague Convention	Ratified in 2014
Convention on the Rights of Child	Effective since 22 May 1994

Articles

SBS News reports Australian LB mother’s case
Click the picture below to get to the article

 

Click the following picture to get to the article

Testimonials of two left behind fathers
at European Parliament
regarding international child abduction in Japan

   

Upon hearing the above testimonials
EU Parliament issued the following Press Release
8 July, 2020

Japan on the blacklist regarding international parental child abduction

 

Following is a documentary on a french father who can not meet his child, broadcast in France 2.
Unlike other advanced countries, Japan does NOT adopt joint parental authority.

 

Documentary: Film “From The Shadows”

This film reveals the reality of parental child abduction and the practice of family courts in Japan.

Link to the Film. Click HERE

 

Practice of Family Courts in Japan

This report shown below is a trial visitation report approved and issued by Hirotoshi Sakaguchi, a former judge and Kenko Ohara, an investigator, at Family Court Muroran, Hokkaido, Japan.
This censored visitation report gives no information about the child taken by the mother.
In this case, the child at age 11 returned by himself to father’s place. The child clearly told to his father every single detail about the court. This report was written prior to the child’s return.

The reason for this censored report is thought that the court had to hide all forged descriptions, that intentionally tried to break the relation between the father and the child since the court did not expect the child returning to his father.

This censored report written by the family court in Japan has already been forwarded to Office of Children’s Issues, U.S. Department of State, Washington D.C. We think this family court practice is the biggest obstacle not to move forward the Hague Convention. This is the clear violation against human rights.

We are happy to provide more information on the reality of the courts regarding parental abduction in Japan.

Please reach us from here.

 

Divorce Lawyer behind the scenes

Toshiteru Shibaike
a lawyer who directs parental child abduction
Covered in this special edition

Download (PDF, Unknown)

There exists a lawyer who is active behind the scenes. The lawyer tries to follow the ugly mentality of the courts mentioned above and never tries to return the children to where they once belonged.

Here is the typical divorce lawyer;

– Toshiteru Shibaike, Kotonoha Sogo Law Office, Kotonoha Legal Translations, Tokyo Japan

Shibaike delivered a speech how to abduct children at the Hague seminar in Paris on 15th of May, 2018. English transcript is available below.
Toshiteru Shibaike was an attorney at Tokyo Public Law Office. He was forced to leave the office on 31 March, 2017 after two years service at the office. For details, please check this page “Toshiteru Shibaike – An attorney who bans the visitation between an innocent father and a child“.

This attorney made an allegation to ban visitation between an innocent father and a child against the child’s will. This child, being abused by his mother and her lover, was sending SOS signals to his father asking for help.

Toshiteru Shibaike knew this situation where the child had been placed. Shibaike, however, ignored the SOS signals from the son. Furthermore Shibaike took action to cut off the help from his father by making an allegation to ban the access to the child.

The child, escaped from the abusing mother, returned to his father’s place by himself and reported well-planned child abuse, including the separation of brothers, by attorney Shibaike to his father. The court accepted child’s report. Toshiteru Shibaike claims himself as a “Hague Authority”, the court, however, did NOT accept Shibaike’s claims. Finally parental custody, including child-care rights, have been approved to the father.
Toshiteru Shibaike, Hague authority, was completely defeated in the parental custody case. Attorney Toshiteru Shibaike was fired Tokyo Public Law Office on 31st March, 2017.

Not only that, Shibaike addressed how to abduct children at Hague seminar in Paris on 15th of May 2018, organised by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Japan Bar Association . English transcript at this seminar is available here.

As seen above, two French fathers killed themselves because they could not see their children. In France, child abduction by Japanese mothers has become a big issue. Shibaike delivered a speech how to abduct children under such very sensitive situation. Naturally, the seminar resulted in causing a demonstration of protest by french parents against Shibaike.

Report issued by the UN Committee on the Rights of a Child

Upon knowing the reality of family courts and divorce lawyers in Japan, United Nation Committee on the Rights of a Child (UNCRC) issued a report on 1st of February 2019, so that the Japanese government revise the current legislation parent-child relation after divorce. In Article F “Family Environment and Alternative Care” para. 27(b), it is clearly stated,

“Revise the legislation regulating parent-child relations after divorce in order to allow for shared custody of children when it is in the child’s best interests, including for foreign parents, and ensure that the right of the child to maintain personal relations and direct contact with his or her non-resident parent can be exercised on a regular basis.”

Please refer to the report for the details:

Download (PDF, Unknown)

Summary – Reality of Family Court and Divorce Lawyer in Japan

We hope you would understand the terrible situation on international child abduction by one parent in Japan. The government, courts as well as divorce lawyers are working together and intend to destroy parent-child relation.

Unlike other advanced countries, Japanese government do NOT adopt the joint parental authority, which means one parent easily loses the rights as a parent and the access to his/her child after divorce.

Please refer to the following articles. These are the tragedies due to the practice of the family courts in Japan.

– Darkness of child abduction business ~ Nozomi Makino April, 2020
– American man appeals for daughter’s return (Nippon TV News 24, Oct. 27, 2015)
– French Father Commits Suicide Because He Can’t See His Child (Children First Blog posted on 1st February, 2011. Note: Japan ratified the Hague Convention in 2014.)

Family bond is legally disconnected by a court in Japan. For children, they can not say they want to see the non-residential parents and have to delete the happy memories with the separated parents.

This is what the single parental authority means. Because of this, there are many domestic and international left behind parents who commit suicide. Another tragedy.

Here is the link to the lawsuit asking the court to judge that non-existence of joint custody system after divorce in Japan is unconstitutional

Even worse, children could face the fatal child abuse. Here is the article of the Japan Times on 25th of March 2019, that points out the shortcomings in Japan’s child-protection services. These girls’ lives could have been saved if joint parental authority had been adopted.

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About Us – What is FABO?

About the Founder
The founder of NPO Family Bond Network became a Left Behind Parent (LBP) in 2011.
The founder once lost the rights to take care of the children in supreme court.
However, after two years from the court decision and after 5 years from the separation day in 2011, the founder finally overturned the supreme court decision and both parental authority and child care rights have been approved to the founder since May 2016.

About the Organisation
Based on the founder’s experience, Family Bond Network (Team FABO) was established in 2015. Since that time, Team FABO has been supporting left behind parents (LBPs) and monitoring judgement/behaviour of family courts/attorneys in Japan.

We have been approved as an NPO in April 2016 in Chiba, Japan and active to reunite parent-child bond that was destroyed due to divorce, separation or international child abduction by one parent.

Our activities

Our activities cover the following topics;

– raise the awareness of child abduction issues
– organise seminars to share recent/study decisions made by courts
– online visitation support
– online counseling for LBP (in Japanese language.  Other languages TBA)
– publish reports/books on LBP experience, the practice of family courts in Japan
– prepare for state compensation, reprimand against lawyers

Seminars over Internet TV conference

We, Family Bond Network, organise FABO seminars on regular basis to let LBPs know the updates on parental child abduction issues in Japan over Web-based TV conference system.

The topics we covered in the FABO seminars are;

– Parental Authority issues
– Counterargument on the attorneys who are against visitation
– Proposal on Japanese family courts regarding Parental Child abduction
– For the fathers/mothers who have just become LBPs
– Report on the family courts and divorce attorneys in Japan

We are also available for interview or lectures in Japanese and English on the topics mentioned above.

References

Please go to the reference page. Some English references are listed.

Support FABO

There are three types of supporting FABO. FABO is always seeking “FABO supporters” to expand our activities. Your support is welcome for reuniting family bond.Currently we need FABO supporters writing reports, translation etc.

1. Become a FABO supporter
2. Give donation
3. Inform FABO activities for other people using social media at the top of this page

Contact

We appreciate your comments, inquiries, requests etc. on parental child abduction and on the operation of family courts in Japan. We have seen so many parents, including non-Japanese parents, committed suicide because of the “legal” separation from the children by the family courts.

Please send your comments, etc. to the following e-mail address toiawase_at_oyakosaisei.org

Thank you very much for your support to protect the family bond.

Family Bond Network, NPO Organisation
1 October, 2015

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