Gov't to study whether to introduce joint custody of children

21st century stuff Japan

Will launch a study? What does that even mean? The current system is horrible. Especially for divorced parents. To hear, as a child and as a parent, that legally one of you no longer exists in the child’s life is ridiculous. Furthermore, when your child is sick and you have to be with them, benefits only cover one parent so the other parent isn’t given things such as child sick leave which means that when your vacation time is used up, it makes it harder.

All talk.....this will never happen in our lifetime here. It's far too easy to keep things as they are than to adapt to the 21st Century!

I had my kids stolen from me after divorce 8 years ago. I saw them maybe 4 or 5 times a year for the first few years, but have been banned from seeing them for the for the last four years. My daughter is now 15. I did nothing to this woman. She just banned me from seeing them on a whim - because she could. The only thing keeping me in Japan was a chance she would change her petty mind and let me see them. However, I gave up trying and will be leaving Japan later this year.

hopefully, their joint custody discussion will include a structured child support system. My ex told me I had to pay ¥3,000 per hour, per child for visitation (rent-a-kid).

they are concerned about it adversely affecting kids? Being cut of from their father is very emotionally harmful, especially for little kids who have no idea why they can’t see their daddy. My ex justified this by telling the kids a whole bunch of lies like, your father is a bad man and doesn’t want to see you.

I have sincere doubts anything will change because of this study.

To hear, as a child and as a parent, that legally one of you no longer exists in the child’s life is ridiculous.

The removed parent exists when he or she has to pay child support - at least they exist so far as to be required to pay it.

I had my kids stolen from me after divorce 8 years ago.

Your pain is felt and shared by countless who have experienced the same or similar.

humiliate Japan on the world stage. that will get the politicians to change things quickly. I personally am going to post this to facebook

@Bugle Boy - My kids live 5k away from me. I went to the house to drop off presents for the kids (she has blocked all my email accounts). I didn’t even go into the complex. I left the presents with the doorman. She emailed me that evening to say, if I went back to the apartment at any time she would call the police and put a stalking order on me. Such a lovely girl!

But some are concerned that such a system would have a negative influence on children

The current situation has a negative influence on children. My sympathy to everyone caught up in it. If there was one thing I could change about Japan, it is this.

I think Japan has a cult or fetish or complex about "mother". A father can never be as anywhere as good as a mother, and a working mother can never be as anywhere as good as a stay-at-home one, who will always be there like Florence Nightingale with a damp towel to wipe the feverish child's brow. The reality I see around me can fall very short of this domestic goddess ideal.

This sounds like it is being done just in time for the Olympics. When a lot of media will be over here talking to all sorts of people, doing background stories to fill in time. If they report back that parents, especially father's, almost always lose custody when they get divorced, it would be a real embarrassment to Japan. But now they can claim they have a panel discussing it, and they will look at it very carefully. And then next year after the Olympics are over, and all the media have gone home, the panel will decide that in Japan, it is best for only one parent to have sole custody, that being the mother, especially if the father is a foreigner.

ah yes, a study. oh, and a panel. how many on the panel do you think?

Always hope for positive change, but maybe study why Japan keeps signing human rights agreements it keep reneging on

It hardly matters what system they set up, some people are going to be unhappy with it. And we will never know who is a champ and who is a chump, whether we are listening to one sided stories or sitting in a good old "he said, she said" powwow.

But joint custody just sounds to me like a tug of war where the kids' arms are the rope. I would sooner have a single custody system where a judge can establish guaranteed visiting rights. But of course even that is not going to be perfect because who is going to actually enforce that ruling and how? There are going to be messes regardless.

The key to agreeable custody arrangements is to marry a sensible, sane human being. If you didn't do that its on you.

PM Abe Shinzo has been the longest serving Prime Minister in Japanese history. As the longest serving PM you would imagine this would allow you to put in to place longer term plans to enact important policy changes which positively affect all Japanese people in Japan and abroad. Shared parental responsibility aka joint custody is in the best interests of children. It is in the best interests of gender equality and empowers women to have more choice whether to be baby maker home maker and/or have a career.

PM Abe Shinzo, what have you achieved to improve and protect children's rights in Japan since Japan ratified the UN convention of the rights of the child?

The main people who benefit from a sole parental authority system are child abductors.

She emailed me that evening to say, if I went back to the apartment at any time she would call the police and put a stalking order on me. Such a lovely girl!

Correct me if i'm wrong, but is such a thing even possible? For someone to be considered a stalker they need to be following someone around regularly and over a certain period of time. Her threats sounds like threats only.

The key to agreeable custody arrangements is to marry a sensible, sane human being. If you didn't do that its on you.

I doubt it's that simple. You don't always know how sensible someone is even when you think you do, and people also change over time. You're making a sweeping generalization.

The huge white elephant in the room that will have to be addressed is the entire Japanese family law system. At its very foundation.

And this is what the government knows. Which is why the study will take a year or more.

Let me explain. So, forget the Japanese / foreigner parent situation and consider the Japanese / Japanese parent situation.

Upon divorce, under a joint custody arrangement, whose family register does the child go into? The child can only belong to one family register.

So, how would joint custody work???? I am not saying there isn't an answer, but we are talking about a fundamental reworking of the Japanese family law system.

And while I understand that many here focus on the Japanese / foreigner parent situation, the truth is that this starts with the purely J / J parent situation. And I can promise you that this endeavor will be looking to change 150 years of family law in Japan.

But joint custody just sounds to me like a tug of war where the kids' arms are the rope.

its not like that at all many countries have good joint custody rules and while it may not be perfect is far better than not allowing the father( in most cases) to see their kids at all.

The key to agreeable custody arrangements is to marry a sensible, sane human being. If you didn't do that its on you.

well in a perfect world peoples mental states wouldn't change from when you married them and divorces would be a thing of the past, the biggest problem is both men and women set their images of the perfect husband/wife too high and become disappointed if those requirements arent met, throw kids into the mix and then things can be for the better or worse

Upon divorce, under a joint custody arrangement, whose family register does the child go into? The child can only belong to one family register.

I can't agree with this statement. So the parents divorce and the child stays on the father's family register. What would prevent his mother from having custody and visitation rights, or vice versa? I don't think this is a difficult thing to fix.

I can't agree with this statement. So the parents divorce and the child stays on the father's family register. What would prevent his mother from having custody and visitation rights, or vice versa? I don't think this is a difficult thing to fix.

Really? What exactly would the standing of the parent that does not have the child in their family register??? The current Japanese system has no ability to accommodate this arrangement.

Which is why current arrangements have no ability to be enforced.

There would have to be put in place an arrangement that would link joint custody to the family register system and formalize the legal custody arrangement....

Which is not currently provided for in the family register system.....

Again, which would require a full reworking of the family register system.

So. Do like every other country does to when it comes to child custody? Go for it Japan. Be innovative. You don't want to be the last country to introduce joint custody for children!

But some are concerned that such a system would have a negative influence on children if their parents cannot reach an accord on rearing them.

In other words, deadbeat fathers who can't even cook a pot of rice to save their lives would be burdened with joint child care? Great.

Having children does not suddenly turn off because of divorce. Deadbeat fathers? Come on there are dozens of great fathers for 1 deadbeat. As there are dozens of great mothers for that evil witch. Focuss should be on the children who no fault of their own end up with parents using them as pawns in a nobody win game.

another guy filed for divorce and can only see his kids monthly or less, and the others remain in miserable marriages. Stay single.

If you go in, you gotta go all in. This isn't a divorce-happy country like some other places. You file for divorce and you basically lose your right to the children. Not saying this id the case for everyone but there are too many deadbeats who think they can walk in and out of people's lives, don't even teach their kids their own language, and think they can gain custody of them.

How can joint custody be worse for children than the current system? Parents deserve both parents, as long as the parents deserve them. This shouldn't be about the parents and what they want, the children should be the focus.

Joint custody in Australia means a minimum of two weekends a month. Child support is set at 11% of the father's gross salary per child. However, this system is often abused. Things like, the mother and children move interstate. They don't need permission to do this in Australia. The mother shacks up with a loser who doesn't work and they live off the child support while the kids run around barefoot. Also, there is no means testing on the child support. In most cases, the father will take responsibility for mortgages and loans in a property settlement, but will still be forced to pay 11% per child of his 'gross' salary (before tax). This has forced many Australian fathers into bankruptcy, which pretty much destroys their lives. It has resulted in many suicides as well.

If Japan was to introduce some kind of joint custody system, it would still be left to the mother's judgement. The same would apply to child support. Japan cannot change its 18th century mindset.

Don't tell me it wasn't the case so far???!!! Japan is modern ??? Lol wtf..

Gov't to study whether to introduce joint custody of children

A study! Maybe in 30 years time things will start to change.

and the others remain in miserable marriages. Stay single.

I think the lesson you are going for is "don't have kids". Divorce is easy if you can just get the spouse to sign and stamp the divorce paper.

Think of the future of children, Joint is the only solution.

The panel will be comprised of ALL JAPANESE scholars as well as ALL JAPANESE officials of the Justice Ministry and the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. LOL!! Yeah right - the same Justice Ministry that Japanese nationals refer to as Chaban a farce whose officials Japanese call Zeikin Dorobo - tax thieves.

Ditto for officials at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry who earlier this year were found guilty of rampant corruption and underpayment of more than 20 million Japanese citizens of their benefits, who did their best to cover it up - some really mature, well-balanced objective officials working there. Before they convene this panel let's see how many years off psychology and child development each member has studied at accredited university level. And for kids with a foreign parent how many years of international study of same each panelist completed. Wanna bet not one foreign scholar, child psychologist / development or mental health professional will be invited to participate?

I am a foreigner who almost married a Japanese. I'm so glad I didn't, because this probably would have happened to me.

Japan moves slow, but they do move.

The vast majority of Japanese child abductors are Japanese mothers... with regard to making objective decisions about needs of abducted kids of foreign fathers, Japan boasts of its homogenous nature and prides itself on being a unique but chauvinistic culture, these traits make it impossible for Japanese to understand and have empathy for foreigners. The majority of Japanese who have boldly invested to live with marry have families with foreigners are Japanese women. How many Japanese men marry foreign women?

@ do tha hustle - damn bro I feel your pain, seriously. I hope you are somehow comforted. Have you thought about keeping a journal or video records of your emotions and attempts to contact the kids? At some point they'll be adults, and maybe you'll get a chance to show them you never gave up. I hope things work out for you

You're going to need something to overcome the inevitable brainwashing that those kids are being subjected to and will be until they become adults

Sadly for you and the kids, she doesn't understand or doesn't care that she's hurting them.

Its quite disgusting to read all this grief about Japan as if anywhere else is a paradise of happy custody agreements.

I see no good reason to disparage Japan or Japanese women over this. There could be a million positive stories but we would never hear it, because people hardly ever write up positive stories about such things or come to leave comments about their positive experience with such things.

One thing I can tell you though: if it comes to needing a court to negotiate such things, one or both are unreasonable and/or selfish. And that can mean one is just denying the other visitation because they are a jerk, or it could mean the one being denied is abusive. And the bad news is that courts have no magic to sort it. So my advice is choose you partner wisely and do you best to negotiate all this yourself and stop thinking you can rely on a someone in a robe to sort your life out.