Japan urged to solve global child custody disputes

Japan urged to solve global child custody disputes

By MARI YAMAGUCHI (AP) – 6 days ago

TOKYO — Ambassadors from the U.S. and seven other countries urged Japan on Friday to quickly resolve a growing number of international child custody disputes, a day after Japanese police freed an American man accused of snatching his own children.
Japanese law allows only one divorced parent as custodian — almost always the mother — leaving many fathers without access to their children until they are grown.
In a growing number of custody cases, Japanese mothers bring their children back to Japan and refuse to let their foreign ex-husbands visit.
U.S. Ambassador John Roos and ambassadors from Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Italy, New Zealand and Spain told Justice Minister Keiko Chiba that Japan should sign an international convention on child abduction and set up ways to allow foreign parents to visit their children.
"We place the highest priority on the welfare of children who have been the victims of international parental child abduction and believe that our children should grow up with access to both parents," they said in a joint statement after the meeting.
Japanese police on Thursday released Christopher Savoie, who was arrested Sept. 28 after his Japanese ex-wife told police he grabbed their two children, ages 8 and 6, as she was walking them to school, forced them into a car and drove away.
In an e-mail Friday to The Associated Press, Christopher Savoie's wife, Amy, wrote, "Christopher's case definitely helped to shine a light on the situation! It is a step in the right direction..."
Prosecutors have not pressed charges against Christopher Savoie, but they haven't yet dropped the case, authorities said. Kidnapping minors in Japan carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.
Savoie was allowed to leave Japan on the condition he not take the children with him. He also promised to settle the dispute with his ex-wife through negotiations, according to the office of his Japanese lawyer, Tadashi Yoshino. Amy Savoie said he is recuperating at an undisclosed location.
"After suffering the loss of the most significant part of his family, Christopher will be nurturing the family that is left," she wrote. "He learned that kids can be taken from you in an instant. Enjoy them every moment."---------------------------------
Child custody for fathers Child custody laws for dads and husbands. Custody Warriors is a members only site for fathers that want to fight and win equal rights to raise their children. Learn child custody laws, share your child custody experiences with other fathers across the United States & around the World. Learn to prepare for the child custody battle ahead and receive feedback from dads who have shared your experiences. There are hundreds of private members only sites devoted to women and mothers seeking child support and custody. Child custody laws and courts around the world discriminate against fathers in child custody cases. It is time for fathers to unite. There is strength in numbers.

Court to decide constitutionality of bad advice

Court to decide constitutionality of bad advice

By JESSE J. HOLLAND (AP) – October 13, 2009

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices on Tuesday questioned whether defendants should expect their lawyers to correctly advise them on all the possible consequences of a guilty plea, including on important issues like deportation.
Jose Padilla, who was born in Honduras, wants the high court to throw out his 2001 guilty plea to drug charges in Kentucky.
Padilla, who has lived in the United States for more than 40 years as a legal permanent resident, said he asked his lawyer at the time whether a guilty plea would affect his immigration status and was told it wouldn't. Padilla's trial lawyer was wrong, and he now faces deportation.
His lawyer for the appeal told the Supreme Court that the incorrect information that was given to Padilla was a violation of the Sixth Amendment right to "effective assistance of counsel."
Attorney Stephen Kinnaird said it is the constitutional duty of the lawyer to explain not only the direct consequences of a guilty plea but any collateral consequences as well. "His duty is to inform the client of the legal risk," he said.
Congress tightened the rules in the mid-1990s to make deportation automatic for many crimes. Immigrants often don't know the deportation consequences of the guilty plea, Kinnaird said, and have a right to that information in criminal cases before making a decision.
But Kentucky Assistant Attorney General WM Robert Long Jr. said criminal attorneys' only constitutional duty is to advise defendants on guilt, innocence and sentencing when it comes to pleas, not what may happen in the future because of the plea.
The purpose of a criminal defense attorney "is not to advise" on immigration matters, Long said.
A binding requirement to advise clients correctly on areas outside their expertise would encourage lawyers "to be silent" when some defendants might not be able to afford a second immigration lawyer, Long said.
If Padilla wins, Justice Antonin Scalia questioned whether the courts would also have to make exceptions for other consequences of guilty pleas, like loss of child custody, loss of property through seizure, loss of voting rights or loss of the right to own a weapon.
"We have to decide whether we're opening Pandora's box here," Scalia said.
Justice Anthony Kennedy suggested telling judges, when they ask defendants whether they are voluntarily pleading guilty, to include a disclaimer telling defendants they would have to accept any collateral consequences of their decision.
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Child Custody laws force parents to extremes

Child Custody laws force parents to extremes

By MINORU MATSUTANI
Staff writer for the Japan Times - posted at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091010f1.html

The high-profile case of Christopher Savoie, a Tennessee man who was arrested in Fukuoka Prefecture for snatching his two children from his Japanese former wife and now faces kidnapping charges, illustrates the extremes a partner in a broken international marriage will resort to for child custody.

Fighting the system: Masahiro Yoshida, who is trying to win visitation rights to see his 4-year-old daughter, is interviewed in Tokyo on Tuesday. Below, Christopher Savoie poses with his children, Isaac and Rebecca. Savoie was recently arrested for allegedly kidnapping them in Fukuoka Prefecture. AP PHOTO

The case, which made a splash in U.S. media, especially on CNN, also highlights the uniqueness of Japan's culture and judicial system regarding the custody of children in cases of divorce, and its lack of regard for custody rulings by courts overseas where divorces took place, such as the one in the U.S. favoring Savoie.

The fact that Japan has not signed the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which secures the prompt return of a child wrongfully removed to or retained in any signatory countries, complicates the problem even further.

Following are some questions and answers regarding a child's custody in international marriages that end in divorce in Japan:

How do family courts usually rule on custody, regardless of a parent's nationality?

Family courts normally grant sole custody to the ex-spouse who is able to spend more time with the child, which in Japan is usually the mother. This contrasts with the United States and many other developed nations, where joint custody is the norm.

The parent who wins custody, almost always the mother, is able to control how much, or how little, the other parent can see the child. They can even bar all contact.

In short, a divorced mother in Japan gets sole custody of the child and decides the visitation terms of the father.

Why is shared custody out of the question?

Article 819 of the Civil Code stipulates that "shinken," or parental rights, reside with only one of the divorced spouses. The legal term refers to the general rights and duties of parents in raising their child. An exact term in English probably does not exist, according to lawyer Takao Tanase.---------------------------------
Child custody for fathers Child custody laws for dads and husbands. Custody Warriors is a members only site for fathers that want to fight and win equal rights to raise their children. Learn child custody laws, share your child custody experiences with other fathers across the United States & around the World. Learn to prepare for the child custody battle ahead and receive feedback from dads who have shared your experiences. There are hundreds of private members only sites devoted to women and mothers seeking child support and custody. Child custody laws and courts around the world discriminate against fathers in child custody cases. It is time for fathers to unite. There is strength in numbers.

The U.S. Japan child custody dispute

The U.S. Japan child-custody spat
Thu, 10/08/2009 - 12:04pm

Posted at http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/10/08/the_us_japan_child_custody_spat

While most recent news and commentary about Japan has understandably been focused on that country's dramatic election results, the U.S. government has been quietly working on a parental-custody case that has become an irritant in the budding relationship between the new Japanese and American administrations.

State Department officials in Japan met yesterday with Christopher Savoie, an American citizen whose recent attempt to reassert custody of his children landed him in a Japanese prison under investigation for kidnapping.

The prospects are not good for Savoie. Local prosecutors in Fukuoka, the western Japanese prefecture where Savoie is being held, are nearing a deadline to decide what charges to bring against the Tennessee native, who traveled to Japan to take back the children his Japanese ex-wife Noriko absconded with in August. He faces deportation at best, five years in a claustrophobic Japanese prison at worst, and the chances that the Japanese legal system will ever grant him rights to see, much less be a parent to, his 8-year-old son Isaac and 6-year-old daughter Rebecca are slim to none.

State Department officials have been intimately involved in the Savoie case, even before Savoie traveled to Japan, but their ability to sway local Japanese officials is negligible. They point to Japan's cultural and legal aversion to cooperating at all on international child-abduction cases, while expressing very cautious hope that the new Japanese government might relax that country's famously intransigent stance on such issues.

In interviews with The Cable, three State Department officials detailed the extensive set of interactions between the U.S. government and Savoie and the ongoing efforts to advocate for him and the dozens of other Americans fighting custody battles in Japan.
Read the entire article at: http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/10/08/the_us_japan_child_custody_spat
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Child custody for fathers Child custody laws for dads and husbands. Custody Warriors is a members only site for fathers that want to fight and win equal rights to raise their children. Learn child custody laws, share your child custody experiences with other fathers across the United States & around the World. Learn to prepare for the child custody battle ahead and receive feedback from dads who have shared your experiences. There are hundreds of private members only sites devoted to women and mothers seeking child support and custody. Child custody laws and courts around the world discriminate against fathers in child custody cases. It is time for fathers to unite. There is strength in numbers.

Child Custody Case Tinged by Politics

Child Custody Case Tinged by Politics
Dispute Raises U.S. Concern Over Japan's Failure to Sign Agreement on Child Abductions

By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI and ALISON TUDOR

Posted at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125469778121862591.html

TOKYO -- A child-custody dispute that landed a U.S. businessman in Japanese police custody offers a glimpse into a longstanding diplomatic sore point between the two countries.

Christopher Savoie is being held in the Japanese city of Fukuoka while police investigate his alleged abduction of his two children. According to police, the eight-year-old boy and six-year-old girl were on their way to school in Fukuoka with their mother -- Mr. Savoie's ex-wife, Noriko Savoie -- when Mr. Savoie forcefully grabbed them, put them in his car and drove away.

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Associated Press
Christopher Savoie with his children Isaac, left, and Rebecca in Franklin, Tenn., in an undated photograph. He argues he has legal custody.
Mr. Savoie argues he has legal custody of the children. In August, after Ms. Savoie had left the U.S. for Japan, a Franklin, Tenn., state court found Ms. Savoie had taken the children abroad in violation of a previous court order and awarded him custody.

"His actions came out of his feelings of love as a father," said Tadashi Yoshino, Mr. Savoie's Japanese lawyer. Since he has parental rights in the U.S., Mr. Yoshino added, "he doesn't necessarily view this as something he's done wrong."

Representatives for Ms. Savoie couldn't be reached Friday.

The situation is raising concerns among U.S. officials who have long complained about Japan's failure to sign a 1980 international agreement governing child abductions. The U.S., China, the U.K., major European countries and Australia all adhere to the agreement.

The 1980 agreement, known formally as the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, says that cases must be sorted out in the country that is the children's place of "habitual residence." Some in Japan have balked at the agreement because Japanese divorce courts typically assign custody to only one parent.

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Child custody for fathers Child custody laws for dads and husbands. Custody Warriors is a members only site for fathers that want to fight and win equal rights to raise their children. Learn child custody laws, share your child custody experiences with other fathers across the United States & around the World. Learn to prepare for the child custody battle ahead and receive feedback from dads who have shared your experiences. There are hundreds of private members only sites devoted to women and mothers seeking child support and custody. Child custody laws and courts around the world discriminate against fathers in child custody cases. It is time for fathers to unite. There is strength in numbers.

U.S. dad jailed in Japan in child custody battle

U.S. dad jailed in Japan in child custody battle
He was arrested after attempting to reclaim kids taken illegally by ex-wife

American jailed in Japan over custody battle
Sept. 30: Christopher Savoie is behind bars in Japan for trying to bring his kids back home after they were illegally taken from him by his ex-wife. TODAY’s Meredith Vieira talks to Savoie’s current wife and his attorney about the arrest.
Today show

By Michael Inbar - TODAYShow.com contributor - Posted at http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/33086856/ns/today-parenting_and_family/

Sept . 30, 2009

An American dad is behind bars and his Japanese ex-wife is a fugitive from justice, due to an epic culture clash between Japan and the United States that is causing untold heartache for families.

Some eight months after her divorce from Christopher Savoie, Noriko Savoie violated a Tennessee court order by absconding with the couple’s two children to her native Japan. A month later, Christopher traveled to Japan to fetch 8-year-old son Isaac and 6-year-old daughter Rebecca — and was promptly thrown in jail by Japanese authorities on child abduction charges.

Sadly, it’s not a unique case. An estimated 125 American children have been taken from the U.S. to Japan by native Japanese parents, and not one has ever been returned through the Japanese legal system. Japan has not signed Hague Convention laws on child abduction, and it isn’t part of the country’s culture for parents to share custody of children.

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Child custody for fathers Child custody laws for dads and husbands. Custody Warriors is a members only site for fathers that want to fight and win equal rights to raise their children. Learn child custody laws, share your child custody experiences with other fathers across the United States & around the World. Learn to prepare for the child custody battle ahead and receive feedback from dads who have shared your experiences. There are hundreds of private members only sites devoted to women and mothers seeking child support and custody. Child custody laws and courts around the world discriminate against fathers in child custody cases. It is time for fathers to unite. There is strength in numbers.

Child Custody News - Jon Gosselin's epiphany: Reality TV not good for my kids

Jon Gosselin's epiphany: Reality TV not good for my kids

Because of his divorce with Kate, Jon says children should no longer film show
Jon Gosselin tells Larry King he hasn't talked with Kate in about a month

October 2, 2009 -- Updated 0648 GMT (1448 HKT)

By Alan Duke at CNN.com

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- After four years of "Jon & Kate Plus 8," Jon Gosselin said he's decided it's not healthy for his children to be on a reality show.


Jon Gosselin appears on "Larry King Live" Thursday. He said he doesn't want his kids to continue with TV show.

"The reason I don't think it's healthy for them is that we're going through a divorce right now, and I don't think it should be televised and I think my kids should be taken off the show," Gosselin told CNN's Larry King on Thursday night.

"They're 5 and 8 now; let them experience a normal childhood," he said.

His lawyer said the TLC reality series about the Gosselin family is dead because no judge would ever "subject the children to the show if the father believes it's detrimental."

Jon and Kate Gosselin announced their separation and divorce filing -- after 10 years of marriage -- on a special one-hour episode in June. They agreed to share custody of their 5-year-old sextuplets and 8-year-old twins.

"I had an epiphany one day," Gosselin told King. "I just looked in the mirror and I said, 'I don't want to be this person anymore.' I made mistakes. I know I messed up. I do regret a lot of things. But I have to learn from those mistakes and move forward." Watch Jon Gosselin talk with Larry King »

He blamed some of his mistakes on his not having a lawyer when he and his wife signed the show contract four years ago.

"He had no manager, he had no lawyer, he had no idea what he was signing," said Mark J. Heller, the lawyer recently hired by Jon Gosselin.

"Now I have a sense of empowerment," Gosselin said. "Before, I didn't have any representation. I take blame for not being an initiator. I was an avoider. I was passive."

Kate Gosselin said she was "saddened and confused by Jon's public media statements."

"Jon has never expressed any concerns to me about our children being involved in the show and, in fact, is on the record as saying he believes the show benefits our children and was taping on Friday with the kids," she said.

She said her estranged husband only changed his mind about their eight children's involvement after TLC "announced the name change of the show and indicated that Jon would have a lesser role in the show."

"It appears that Jon's priority is Jon and his interests," Kate Gosselin said.

TLC announced Tuesday that it was retitling the show "Kate Plus 8" because of "recent changes in the family dynamics."

Jon Gosselin's lawyer said the network only fired him "before he fired the show."

The state labor department is investigating whether TLC violated child labor laws by not properly paying the children or getting permits for the past four seasons, Heller said.

"These kids have been working without compensation for four years," Heller said.

Gosselin revealed to King that the family was paid $22,500 per episode, with none of the money specifically designated for the eight children.

TLC, in a written statement Thursday, said it had halted "direct filming of the children" until Jon and Kate Gosselin have "further conversations."
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Child custody for fathers Child custody laws for dads and husbands. Custody Warriors is a members only site for fathers that want to fight and win equal rights to raise their children. Learn child custody laws, share your child custody experiences with other fathers across the United States & around the World. Learn to prepare for the child custody battle ahead and receive feedback from dads who have shared your experiences. There are hundreds of private members only sites devoted to women and mothers seeking child support and custody. Child custody laws and courts around the world discriminate against fathers in child custody cases. It is time for fathers to unite. There is strength in numbers.