Japan prepares to sign the Hague convention (mandating return of children abducted by a parent)

jvardrake · 2012-02-07T22:14:36+00:00

If you read what they are actually doing, however, you will find that it is basically all just for show.

Here is an article from the The Daily Yomiuri with a bit more details on the proposed bill. Bottom line - there are all kinds of loopholes that will ensure nothing happens.

First of all, they are of course making allowances for cases in which "physical violence or domestic abuse is a factor", which basically means that if the Japanese mother merely makes a claim of there having been DV, nothing will be done.

Second, and this one is even more ridiculous in my mind, "The draft also mentions other cases that would warrant rejecting the return claim--for instance, if the child has adjusted to a new environment after being in Japan for more than a year; or the child refuses to be returned". So, basically, as long as the Japanese mother manages to "convince" the child that he/she wants to live with mommy, or if she just manages to drag the court case out for the "one year adjustment" period, nothing is going to be done.

Of course, they could surprise me with this bill (and their willingness to enforce it), but with their current record being what it is with regards to how they have treated cases in which a Japanese mother has abducted a child from a foreign spouse, I highly doubt that will be the case.

Edit:

I forgot to point out the other strange part of the bill that was mentioned in the Yomiuri article:

When the request for the return of a child is approved, a family court would order the Japanese parent to voluntarily return the child.

If a Japanese parent does not obey such an order, the court would impose fines on them. If the fines are not paid within two weeks, a court execution officer would be authorized to execute a mandatory handover of the child, the draft said.

Why are there "fines" at all? Why don't they just enforce their order, and go get the child? Also, what happens if those fines are paid? The Japanese mother can just keep right on disobeying the order to the return the child, wait until the one year period of adjustment has taken place, and then say, "Well, the child has been here for a year now, has all these friends, and doesn't want to leave"? Honestly? Doesn't this seem like something that was placed in the bill for the sole purpose of being a loophole?

anillop · 2012-02-07T20:20:26+00:00

Its about time they signed on to this. The stories about Japanese mothers kidnapping their children and taking them back to Japan where they then use the Japanese legal system to screw over the fathers.

JeremiahMRA · 2012-02-08T06:04:28+00:00

Japan prepares to sign the Hague convention (mandating return of children abducted by a parent)

In other words

Japan prepares to sign the Hague convention (mandating return of children abducted by a father only)

Title	Japan prepares to sign the Hague convention (mandating return of children abducted by a parent)
Author	mistyriver
Upvotes	18
Comments	6
Date	February 7, 2012 6:23 PM UTC (14 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/peym6/japan_prepares_to_sign_the_hague_convention/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/japan-prepares-to-sign-the-hague-convention.1028082 https://theredarchive.com/post/1028082

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