Australia latest to pressure Japan over custody law as activists call for 'meaningful change'
After seeing dozens of Australian families torn apart by Japan's notorious child custody laws, Canberra this month has called on Tokyo to introduce a joint custody system that guarantees both parents access to a child after a divorce.
Australia's initiative follows similar efforts by the United States, the European Union and individual countries in Europe and elsewhere to encourage Japan to alter the law to enable foreign ex-spouses of Japanese nationals to see their children.
The Japanese Civil Code grants a single parent - almost always the Japanese guardian in an international marriage - sole custody after a divorce.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
Australian media have reported that 82 Australian children have been recognised as abducted by their Japanese parent since 2004. Hundreds of children from other countries have been similarly affected. And despite Interpol missing persons notices and even international arrest warrants being issued by those nations, Japanese police and courts have consistently failed to act, typically claiming they are unable to intervene in "family affairs".
After 18 months of reportedly heated debate, a panel from the Japanese Justice Ministry in November released a draft proposal on permitting joint custody of children and asked for public comment. A final proposal is due in the coming months and will be debated in the Diet.
And while the discussions and plans to revise the law have been broadly welcomed, some activists who have been campaigning to see their children for many years caution the potential legislative change may not be what foreign governments perceive it to be.
Australia has offered to work with Japanese authorities to share details of Australia's family laws, which is consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Japan is a signatory to the convention but critics claim it fails to apply the statutes. The UN Human Rights Committee last year rebuked Japan for its shortcomings on child custody.
A number of Japanese politicians are known to support the Australian proposals, with Tokyo reportedly "embarrassed" at the negative attention its laws are attracting around the world.
"There is pressure from the global community, which is good, but I fear there is a high risk that the Japanese government will not meaningfully change the current system," said Yasuyuki Watanabe, a professor at Tokyo's Tama University, a founder member of a group that brings together parents, lawyers from Japan and abroad and a number of senior politicians.
Watanabe has not seen his own daughter since 2010, and is sceptical about the proposed changes.
The ministry is "ostensibly discussing" introducing a joint custody system, he said. "But in reality, it is a cleverly-worded proposal that does not really allow for joint custody. It is a false proposal."
Watanabe said the Justice Ministry "believes it can deceive foreign governments by telling them that it has decided to permit joint custody, but in reality, nothing has changed. We must make sure that they are not deceived and that the external pressure to continues to make sure that we succeed".
He is not the only one convinced the ministry will act in the best interests of children at the centre of custody disputes, which affect Japanese children even more than kids born to parents of different nationalities. They point to the heated debate over legal changes hints at the desire in some sectors to retain the present system.
Representatives of women's groups taking part in the discussions to change the law claimed that shared custody raised the risk of women who had been victims of domestic violence being once again attacked. One media report repeated the claim that children would be at risk of being killed if an abusive parent was granted access.
A lawyers' association supporting parents who have been denied access to their children, points out that the proposed change would still require one guardian to relinquish their parental rights. This requirement would effectively give the parent with custody the ability to resist access to the child.
"This also means that both parents must agree that one of them will 'abandon' the child," the lawyers' group said in a statement. "Even a little thought should reveal just how traumatic this would be for a child."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
