Frenchman's hunger strike over 'abducted' kids enters third week

If he is a danger to the children, then supervised visits should still be possible in controlled environments 2x a month. It is barbaric to keep a parent away from their children, especially when they are small kids and don't really understand what is happening.

If there is no danger to the children, unsupervised visits should be the minimal and at least monthly weekends staying with the parent who is disconnected seems like a civilized compromise.

Cutting of half a family due to a vindictive Japanese parent is wrong. Parents, cousins, uncles and aunts all miss the kids.

It is clear the woman is vindictive since she lied about abuse.

Doesn't matter how much he protests. Very few Japanese, if any, care

Can someone explain to me why joint custody doesn't exist in Japan?? Do they expect the kids to just be devoid of the chance to grow up with both parents and foster resentment to the absent one?

The ex-wife would rather see the father of her children dead than to let them meet with him. She must have mental problems to be so heartless.

This man plans to die for his children.

I feel bad for him, but did he really think Macron would care about the issue besides lip service in mentioning it to Suga? It's telling that Macron gushingly posted a Twitter message after the meeting, about how the two countries have an "exceptional" relationship. Macron probably thinks he did his part in simply mentioning it to Suga, now he can go about his business and wash his hands of it.

Sickening.

This was just reported on the BBC World Service‘s Newsroom just after 7:00 a.m (JST).

They just going to let this guy die?

This is so sickening of Japan.A Japanese wife only needs to rush to the whoever and say anything and they will believe her religiosly.I have so many friends who are in the same situation.I can never trust the Japanese systems and vowed never to have kids in Japan.And most of this kids live miserably just so that the selfish J wife can go around bragging about the kawaii hafu to her friends.

Fichot's wife accused him in court of domestic violence but later retracted the claim, he said. His wife's lawyer refused to comment to AFP, but denounced "biased" media reports.

Then make them less "biased" by commenting and giving her side of the story, you doofus.

Joint custody of children in cases of divorce or separation does not exist legally in Japan, where parental abductions are common and often tolerated by local authorities.

There it is in a nutshell. I was ostracized from my kids in Japan when I lived 8k away from them. It’s a very common scenario in Japan, especially with foreign fathers. I applied to the courts and was told exactly the above. There is nothing a father can do if she refuses to give him access. After 8 years of battling to see my kids I gave up and left Japan and have accepted the fact I will never see my kids again, sadly.

The ex-wife would rather see the father of her children dead than to let them meet with him. She must have mental problems to be so heartless.

"mental problems?"...doubtful.

Secure in the fact that she comes from a society that allows her to abduct children without repercussions?... definitely.

S

@Jsapc “Then make them less "biased" by commenting and giving her side of the story, you doofus.”

The point is she doesn’t care about giving her side of the story because she has the children and can do whatever she wants, while if she comes out of hiding she might (very unlikely, but might) have to give visitation rights or even go to court for custody in a slightly difficult position of having taken away the children (again, not so problematic in Japan but now under media attention).

So her side of the story is clear: she keeps the children and has no intention of changing the situation. The problem is exactly that she can.

Dear Vincent, as I watch you struggle and possibly hurt yourself over your kids, here is an advive from a FATHER who been there before you.

Give it up, Get up and get back on your feet, STAND TALL, DO NOT LET THIS SYSTEM BREAK you down.

Your kids will come looking for you as long as you stay around and keep in touch, it may take time but they will especially the boy.

Find new love, Have kids, and take good care of yourself.

IT IS NOT WORTH DYING FOR, Japans will not change anything for as long as it is Japan.

Does anyone know exactly which train station he is at?

I hope this guy gets some conclusion. Alas, the Sun King Macron and his counterpart Suga care nothing about this man's plight. 2 weeks so far of not eating. In this heat as well. I'm sure it won't take long before he is in critical condition. Japan needs to change their laws on this. However, "change" is something the Japanese politicians are not good at.

To be fair, did Dr. Biden also discuss these parental child-abduction issues while discussing education with Suga & his wife? (Her dissertation was on student retention and maintaining a consistency of learning environments.)

@Albert

I have read from Facebook post, he is at Sendagaya station

I hope this man can get justice, but to die of hunger/heat stroke in the street is not the way.

The Japanese govt. doesn’t care.

He needs intervention, and to remove himself from this hellhole into a more civilized country, to make a better plan.

The Japanese mother needs to be put on an international list of child kidnappers; and detained at any major airport she travels to- she should not be allowed to behave like a spoiled brat and be enabled by her country.

Can someone explain to me why joint custody doesn't exist in Japan??

Short answer; the law doesn't allow it. Long answer; historically most children ended up with the mother and a divorced woman would have to find a new husband willing to adopt her children. Just like today, many men weren't interested in marrying a divorced woman if the old husband was still poking around on weekends to see his kids. The law in Japan cuts the man out of the picture to give the woman and children the best possible chance of finding a new provider. Joint custody laws in wealthier western countries were only introduced after the adoption of a welfare state that looks after single-mothers and enforces child support payments with a large bureaucracy. Japan, China and many other countries without joint custody laws have a different economic and cultural history.

mbuhlayawToday  08:42 am JST

@Albert 

I have read from Facebook post, he is at Sendagaya station

Thank you. Looking forward to visiting him and offer some moral support. Perhaps some hygien supplies as well.

Hiro Today  08:17 am JST

Another way to look at it is that if he dies (pray he doesn't) some day his kids will learn that their father died trying to convince their mother to allow him to be part of their lives.

For people asking the station, it is In Sendagaya Station. I visited him last week just before Olympics, there were quite a lot of people (including Japanese people) supporting him and I don"t think the policeman would try to oust him if there are too many people. You should go and support him if you have the time to do it.

France doesn't even know if my children are alive," he said on Saturday of his six-year-old son and four-year-old daughter, who he has not seen since August 2018.

Three years without meeting his children is heartbreaking!!!

I wish him all success.

They just going to let this guy die?

I presume that for many people it would be the end of the problem. So the sooner he dies and the fewer people know about the situation, the better.

For most people with a heart, the sooner this guy is reunited with his kids, the better.

It must be truly heart breaking to not be able to see your own children.

Why won't Japan change this extremely biased and unfair system? I don't see anyone supporting this system.

The wife should realise she's doing more harm to the children by not allowing them to see their father. I wonder what she tells them when her children asks about their father.

That woman has no heart. He is still a father. And unless he has been abusive, he should still be able to see his children if this were a civilized society.

What a bizarre and backwards legal system.

I am not able nor willing to die of hunger for my kids but I do understand that psychologically some persons would die for a cause, especially so personal.

If Japanese don't care usually about importance of life (different culture, just remember WWII), French do.

If Macron the usurper does not make bend Japan at least for his case, for which he has the means, he will be scolded by the majority of French, me included. And I am fairly standard French in my opinion.

Who on Earth being called civilized would accept kids to be treated as products, not human beings ?

To be fair even during the yellow vest movement, Marcon refuse to listen. From 2018-2021 you have several large scale movement within France where protestors clash with police. If he think a single hunger strike can make Macron care, he clearly doesn't know the man. Macron will probably happily eat diner while watching the games.

Not to mention using a hunger strike to force the goverment to react is a move that is a double edge sword. You might not like the response when the government decide to focus on you.

Monsieur Fichot: This may seem a stupid idea, a useless idea, but make an appeal video to your children explaining simply how you love them, want to see them, and how, maybe, Okasan is being ijiwaru and please ask her to be nice to Daddy and post it on YouTube. Again, perhaps far out, but maybe someone close to the children whose sympathies are not totally with the mother might find a way for the children to see Papa and Papa's great sadness. Yes, putting the children in the middle, but he IS their FATHER and has a right to explain to his children why he is not there, and if the mother is lying to them, she will face tough questions from them. Not very good advice but neither is starvation in the face of a non-caring or even hostile audience. Bonne chance...

So Many stories about this kind of cases in Japan.

I was in Japan since 1999, I married and have 3 children's, as what happen to everyone else in Japan who married to a Japanese women and lose they children's, I read and learn and put a plan.

on the first sight of having the usual problem that coming marrying a Japanese women, I started my plan, get my kids citizenship of my country and get them they passports, a month after the first argument with her, I knew what was coming and two months later my kids were here in my country with me.

The lucky thing was that I married one that think that she will never get old and she still young and don't need Children's or that Children's are a obstacle to have fun, I'm the one who have to call her so she can speak with her children's because I would never said or do anything for my kids to hate they mother, unlike Japanese.

I am really sorry for his situation.

If I had time I'd go there with some supplies for him and spend a night with him for moral support. I'm in a toxic marriage myself and scared of exactly this to divorce my spouse. I'd rather be in a miserable marriage then divorce her and go through the same process as this guy. I admire his courage but don't know if his actions will change anything in his favour. Poor guy, showing the ultimate power of a father's love to his children

If anyone knows this guy's family, please tell his kids that their father is literally dying to meet them!

Feel like he pinned a lot of hope on Macron meeting with him and/or actually doing something.

He is now approaching a critical stage health wise and given the heat I can't imagine they let him stay out there much longer.

Wherever the kids are there must be people that know of this story and know the kids. Hopefully, there will be some back channeling and he can see his kids and end this thing his way.

M3M3M3 gave a good explanation of why this system is the way it is. From a cultural point of view, I have heard two other reasons...

a/ it is disruptive for kids to shuttle back and forth between two parents. They need one stable home without confusion and without acrimony. One parent should have legal control over education, residence, etc. otherwise it is complicated.

b/it is disruptive for kids' education. Most kids have activities on the weekend and in summer. If the non-custodial parent lives in a different area, the kids won't be able to attend club activities, juku, etc. It is better for the kids to have a stable environment so their schooling is not impacted.

c/parents are too busy to always be taxiing kids from one household to another every weekend. Fathers often get home too late, have weekend work that springs up suddenly, etc. So they are unable to see their kids regularly.

Not saying that I agree with any of these, but they do carry a lot of weight in Japan

As many parents, I totally support him and if more parents will join him in hunger strike, things may change and kick out stubborn dinosaurs of Japanese administration.

No official numbers exist, but rights groups have estimated that about 150,000 minors are forcibly separated from a parent every year in Japan.

Anyone can pick a number out of a hat to make your point, but supporting the number, with hard facts and data to support it, makes your point harder to dispute!

Japan does not have joint custody laws, so in effect ANY divorces with children in the mix, could be counted into this as well! In fact read the link below here;

According to a demographic study by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, in 2016 a total of 14,851 Japanese men married foreign brides and 6,329 Japanese women took foreign husbands.

> https://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00174/

Shameful in a modern World. The wife and the system should do the right thing here. He has more than demonstrated that he is sincere in this whatever the circumstances. His death would indeed be pointless as others have said.

One of the reasons why shared custody still does not exist in Japan is because its believed the mother would have a more difficult time getting remarried or even getting into another relationship with a man if the children were still visiting the father. So, if the mother choses, she does not need to grant the father access to the children. Even for men, if they are divorced or have children, they can have an extremely difficult time getting remarried again to a Japanese woman. Most Japanese women want a man without any "baggage" and the same goes for men. I've been divorced for 6 years, and 99% of the time I get ghosted after telling a woman I'm divorced or I have children, even if I rarely see them.

This is just madness in 2021 and apathy of the government and public towards all father/mother victims whether foreigner or japanese is disgusting and sad.

My suggestion to foreigners, who is getting married and hopefully will be father someday, never let the mother give her surname to the children with archaic excuses, you should be decisive on giving your surname to your own children as all the other japanese fathers do, so that you can have more authority to talk in the public, governmental offices or to the school of your children.

If you let mother give her surname to the children, it will be much more easy to lose the track on their life, you'll not be able to find answers to your questions or nobody to support you in the public.

If Japanese don't care usually about importance of life (different culture, just remember WWII), French do.

Racism is not going to help your whatever point you are trying to make!

Everyone views life as important, and I mean everyone!!!

Some Japanese Women can be very hard to read - very two faced, on the hand, very keen to pleasure her man - acting young girl like and all that (especially the noises...) - the art of being kawaii ; but on the other, can turn viciously nasty. Perhaps sort of like living with a real-life Dr. Jekyll and Ms Hyde.... I'm not saying all are like that, though I sort of stayed clear of them after a couple of relationships exhibited a transformation of disbelief.

3 weeks hunger strike in this weather is a long time. I'm surprised the police haven't hauled him off citing Olympic security concerns.

Macron should not have ccame to Japan in the first place. While he is imposing the sanitary pass in France, and many restrictions, he is traveling free himself with no quarantine, no pcr test and no sanitary pass. He himself got the covid while accusing French not being responsible enough.

For the present case, though Macron does not personaly care, Vichot had the support of French representatives in Japan and also some Japanese senators. The message has been conveyed to the French Embassy, then Macron as the head of state, and is part of the diplomatic discussion between countries. It will not change much, but by putting constant pressure on Japan, it might have an impact. It is a question of time.

Many women had also their kids abducted, and surprisingly, there are stories of Japanese women havinf their kids abducted by the Japanese father

MarkToday  10:39 am JST

Best comment on the thread.

I spoke briefly with Vincente this afternoon, Monday the 26th, in front of Sendagaya Station (Chuo-Sobu Line) near one of the Olympic venues.

He is from Marseille and has lived in Japan for 15 years. There were several people there at the same time. From the number of water bottles it seems that many people stop and offer words of sympathy or encouragement. He said he had the discipline to continue.

The point is she doesn’t care about giving her side of the story 

You don't know what she does or doesn't care about. Nobody knows anything about her because she doesn't speak to the media. Which is why I refrain from passing any judgement one way or the other.

Here is the real hero job for dudes like Tylers: to help this guy to find and get back his kids.

His body will start digesting his organ ,for nutrient until he is dead

@Mmwkdw

Just honne and tatemae playing, part of Japanese culture. They are able to smile while they suffer. Totally opposite to honesty in showing the other true feelings. That is the way it is.

@Ulysses

Racism is not going to help your whatever point you are trying to make!

Everyone views life as important, and I mean everyone!!!

Why are you talking about race ?

It is all cultural.

And no, life is not seen as holy in all countries. Just think about suicide for Japan, it is still very taboo. French and generally speaking Christian culture do help anyone suffering before it is too late, even ennemies.

Perhaps this should have been a “World” or “Politics” headline since Macron allegedly discussed it with Suga?

“No official numbers but rights groups have est. that about 15k minors are forcibly separated from a parent every year in [JAPAN] the E. Asian archipelago.”

Ashley ShibaToday 07:34 am JST

Yet, foreign men still think it is great to marry a Japanese women and don't think of the consequences if the marriage doesn't work.

Crazy right? I mean who doesn't get into a relationship before thinking about how it might end [that is sarcasm by the way]...

There's actually a way for Vincent to meet his kids if he takes the proper process in Japan (面会交流調停) but since his wife took their children first, he doesn't want to bend to the system and be the parent who doesn't get to choose when he can meet his children. It means he hasn't even taken the first step to negotiate with his wife when there is a more peaceful way to meet his boys than hurting himself. That's why I can't support him 100%.

I do think there's a flaw to the Japanese system, but that's up to the politicians to find a middle ground. It's currently set up like this in case the children need to be securely protected from a real abuse.

The last one who got them back went on TV. He took them to live with him in France, found an other mom, and was attacking the soul of the poor woman to an extend where there was no doubt about the real hits she received.

May be this man is the good one. But most male love Japanese women as a doll more than as a woman with her own culture to love and respect. And if he didn't convince Macron or his surrounding (who is not high on moral) then he will not convince a Japanese Judge either.

In France, we can have a good silent language too even if this is more an elite gift. This is a good lie and truth detector.

°

MMF

This is so sickening of Japan.A Japanese wife only needs to rush to the whoever and say anything and they will believe her religiosly.I have so many friends who are in the same situation.I can never trust the Japanese systems and vowed never to have kids in Japan.And most of this kids live miserably just so that the selfish J wife can go around bragging about the kawaii hafu to her friends.

Amazing. The lack of joint custody laws is an issue that also affects Japanese spouses, but for some reason you people have managed to turn this into a racial issue. Lol, stay classy y'all.

Look before , you leap, lots of Japanese women , have wanderlust with a gaijin, lots of gaijin pretend to like japanese culture ,then japanese women start yearning for home,

Btw if he dies, he basically lose the bet. Because the whole point was for him to have some alone time with his kids. Him dying over it defeat the purpose.

Did he think it through? Him dying instead will scarred his kids for life. if he live, at least they might still able to see him when they become of age. We live in a social media world and is not hard to connect with others. One day these kids will want to know who they father are and will eventually make contact. But if he dies, the kids will become a laughing stock in school. School kids bully others for way less than this. Plus I wouldn't give the wife that kind of satisfaction.

I am not sure why they broke up or what their family situation was to led to this, but i don't think trying to starve yourself to death in such a way live on tv is the answer. As long you are alive, the future still hold many possibilities.

In my opinion, he already gotten the attention from the world and declare his love for his kids. Is time to stop and eat. Any longer and he might get permanent organ damages. Get well and stay strong for your kids. His family should try to convince him to stop and maybe try to talk it out with his ex too.

The scare quotes around the word abducted in the title are very spurious.

Ultimately, completely pointless.