Japanese leaders and diplomats regularly lambast North Korea for the abduction of their citizens by state spies – one of countless human rights abuses committed by Pyongyang.

What is less known is that hundreds of American children have been abducted to Japan in defiance of international conventions, while at home, hundreds of thousands of Japanese children suffer from facto parental kidnappings.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan hosted a panel in Tokyo to discuss domestic and international parental child abduction. Topics included harm to the children, shortcomings in Japanese family law and how Japan's Continuity Principle ​is keeping children kidnapped. Panelists included:

• Mr. Akira Ueno, Attorney, Nihonbashi Sakura Law Firm
• Professor Noriko Odagiri, Professor of Clinical Psychology Tokyo International University
• Mr. Tommaso Perina, an Italian Father
• Mr.Vincent Fichot, a French Father

WASHINGTON—Parents Jeffery Morehouse, Juan Garaicoa, and Michelle Littleton sat before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Dec. 10 to testify about the same terrible fate of their children—international abduction by a spouse.

“While most children were returning to school, my children were boarding a plane and being kidnapped to war-torn Lebanon,” Littleton, a mother of three, said.

“She had kidnapped our son to Japan,” said Morehouse, the founder and executive director of the non-profit Bring Abducted Children Home. “I don’t even know where he is being held.”

“Time is of the essence and now is the time to bring our children home,” pleaded Garaicoa, whose two children remain in Ecuador.

While the countries, children, and spouses are different, they share the same frustration of fighting to be reunited with their children in foreign lands.
Morehouse won custody of his children in U.S. courts—and twice in Japan—but his teenage son, Mochi, who was taken by his wife at age 6, remains in Japan with his mother because there is no enforcement mechanism under Japanese law.
​
“In the end, the court refused to reunite Mochi and me,” said Morehouse.”It does not matter how a child ends up with the abductor in Japan, they will not uphold laws and treaties to return children to their rightful home.”

Jeffery Morehouse dropped his 6-year-old son off with his mother for a weeklong visit in 2010 — and she managed to abscond with him to Japan.

On Monday, Mr. Morehouse, executive director of Bring Abducted Children Home, called on Congress to step up American efforts to bring his son and other children back from overseas, saying the government’s actions are inconsistent and insufficient.
​
“President Trump ran on putting America first,” Mr. Morehouse said in his testimony to the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on global human rights. “Well, America first means putting American children first and bringing them home.”

On May 15, 2018 as Japan was about to be cited for International Parental Child Abduction by the United States, they held a public seminar at the House of Culture of Japan in Paris co-organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. In an audio recording from inside the event, we hear participants being educated about The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Parental Child Abduction. They are also taught how to prevent having their children returned to France should they take them without consent to live in Japan. More simply put, organizers lay out how to abduct to Japan and get away with it.

Addressing at the United Nations Human Rights Council this week Mr. Shunichi Fujiki of the International Career Support Association declared, "Parental child abductions are becoming a serious human rights violation in Japan."

"The abducted child is at the mercy of the abducting parent. The child can no longer go home and [is] forced to sever their relationship with the abandoned parent."

Children have the right to be loved by both parents. He continues, "In Japan many children are deprived of the basic rights because of the current system and crooked lawyers."

U.S. Congresswoman Mimi Walters (CA-45) speaks on the House floor about Keisuke's 2008 kidnapping to Japan by his mother and Japan's terrible record on international parental child abduction.

“Japan continues to have one of the worst records in returning abducted children like Keisuke [Collins] to the United States,” declared Rep. Walters.

She closed, "this is a grave injustice and I will continue to support Randy and all
families whose children have been wrongfully abducted."

In 2011, partnering with Mr. Collins while she served in the California State Senate she introduced SB 1206 which was signed into law in 2012 as Keisuke's Law.

The network, Japanese Cultural Channel Sakura, uses racist overtones to mock the U.S. and parents of internationally kidnapped children for wanting to be part of their children's lives. Below is the disturbing broadcast in its entirety. ​

Channel Sakura has hosted the Prime Minister as well as other top government officials on their programs.
​
The following is a condensed broadcast version of a news program in Japan supporting international parental child abduction.

U.S. Congressman Chris Smith provides an impassioned plea for the return of "Mochi" Atomu Imoto Morehouse and all children kidnapped to Japan by a parent. The video was released at a May 29, 2017 press conference in Tokyo by Jeffery Morehouse and attorney Akira Ueno at the Tokyo Courthouse. (full transcript in Japanese and English follows)

ジェフリーモアハウスは、2010年以来、彼の誘拐された息子、モチ君と再会すべく、粘り強く、思慮深く、努力し続けています。
 
国際的な人権を監督する公式な議会小委員会の議長として、私は、ジェフリー氏を議会に招待しました。彼に自らの話を議会で証言してもらうためです。彼の証言を聞いた私は、深く感動しました。彼とモチ君が、この悲痛な、そして非合法な引き離しの結果として味わっている苦痛、苦しみ－－その苦痛を知るにつけ、彼の息子に対する愛情がどれだけ並外れたものか分かります。
 
2015年にジェフリー氏が米国議会に報告したとおり、彼は2007年以来アメリカ合衆国においてモチ君の単独監護権を有しています。この事実はまた、2014年に日本の法廷でもまた合法なものとして認められています。にもかかわらず、彼の息子が日本政府によって彼のもとに戻されなかったことについて、私は衝撃を受けました。
 
彼がどれほどの苦痛を味わっているか、それは私の想像を超えるものでしょう。彼と会い、話を聞く度、私はそう感じます。彼は、モチ君が無事に帰ってくるために、精力的に努力し続けている愛情深い父です。
 
1994年以来、アメリカ合衆国から日本への親による誘拐事件は数百件あります。その中でもジェフリー氏のケースは、母親による重大な違法行為がある点で目を引きます。日本にとどまることが「子供の最善の福祉」であると主張することは間違いです。もちろん、それは誘拐された後で日本に行った場合でも、日本で誘拐があった場合でもです。親による子の連れ去りは、児童虐待です。そしてそれは、その状態が続く限り、日々進行し続けています。
 
日本は、人口の多い大国です。そして我が国の友人であり、重要な同盟国です。しかし、いかなる民主国家も、いかに立派な政府であっても、こうした犯罪行為を許し続けてはなりません。
 
2011年に、私は、日本に連れ去られた子供との再会をただただ願うたくさんのアメリカ人の親御さん方のために来日しました。私がお会いした日本側の官僚の方や政府高官の方は、こうした国際的な子の連れ去り引き離しが、子供と引き離された親の両方にとってどれだけ深い傷を残すかということについて、大いに賛同してくださいました。
 
日本が国際的な子の誘拐に関するハーグ条約にすでに署名していることは周知のとおりです。これは、こうした子供の誘拐事例をハーグ条約の精神に沿って適切に解決するという政府の意思の顕れです。
 
にもかかわらず、すでに数年前に裁判所での判断が出ているはずのモアハウス氏のケースは、いまだ解決できていません。父子の再会はできないままであり、日本における人権問題として取り上げられ続けています。
 
私は日本政府の友人たちに求めます。どうか、いまだ未解決の国際的な子供の誘拐問題について、決定的な措置を取ってください。どうか、モチ君を、愛情に満ちた父親の下に帰してあげてください。

Jeffery Morehouse has been tenaciously and thoughtfully trying to reunite with his kidnapped son, Mochi, since 2010.
 
As the chairman of the official congressional subcommittee that oversees international human rights, I invited Jeffery to testify before congress to tell his story.  I was deeply moved. The love he has for his son is extraordinary—as is the suffering and pain he and Mochi endure as a result of this heartbreaking and illegal separation.
 
As Jeffery reported to the US Congress in 2015, he has had sole custody in the United States since 2007. This fact was also recognized as legal by the courts in Japan in 2014.  Thus, it is shocking that his son has not been returned to him by the Japanese government.
 
I can't imagine the pain of this kind of separation, and I hear it in his words every time I see him, and that is often.  He is a loving father tirelessly trying and working for return of his son.
 
There have been hundreds of parental abductions from the U.S. to Japan since 1994.  Jeffery's case underscores a serious injustice.  It is false to claim that it is “in the best interest of the child” to remain in Japan—or anywhere after being kidnapped and taken there.  Child abduction is a daily, ongoing form of child abuse.
 
Japan is a great country with many great people.  It is a friend and important ally of the United States.  But, no democratic, honorable government should allow this type of criminal act to continue.
 
In 2011, I traveled to Japan on behalf of many American parents who simply wanted to be reunited with their children.  Japanese elected officials and government officials with whom I met, agree that the forced separation is deeply damaging—both for the child and the left behind parent. 
 
Japan as we all know has since signed the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction—signifying the government’s intention to properly resolving these child abduction cases.
 
But the Morehouse case, already adjudicated in the courts years ago, continues to raise troubling questions about Japan’s human rights’ record and its commitment to reuniting families. 

​And so I call on my friends in the Japanese government to please take decisive action in this and other pending international child abduction cases.  Please return Mochi to his loving father.

The Coalition to End International Parental Child Abduction met in The Roosevelt Room with White House staff close to the President and Ivanka Trump. "Being invited to The White House to discuss policy changes necessary with countries like Japan is an important step in making American children first and bringing them home," according to Jeffery Morehouse, Executive Director of Bring Abducted Children Home and founding partner in The Coalition.

In Japan's Diet, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida declares there is not a single example of sanctions under the Goldman Act and the Government of Japan is of the opinion that they are sincerely compliant with the Hague Convention. See 3:28-4:39

Next week President Obama will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Abe in Washington D.C. The Prime Minister is anticipated to deliver a commitment to implementing Hague legislation. However, there has been no previously announced plan for resolution of existing cases. In advance of the meeting, Bring Abducted Children Home delivered letter addressed to the Prime Minister of Japan to Japanese consulates throughout the U.S.

By Jeffery Morehouse

On my recent trip to Japan, I met with several of the leaders, activists and groups in movement there to end parental child abduction and create joint custody laws. Their domestic problem is enormous in its volume. I met parents that had some briefly monthly visitation and as extreme as a father who has not seen his children for seven years. He would later assist me as I tried to deliver a present for my son on New Year’s Day.

One of the interesting facets was to see the utilization of Japanese animation characters in doing the public outreach at the event in Gifu, Japan. Frankly at first, I thought it was strange and undercut the seriousness of this human and family rights issue. Then I looked at it through local eyes and saw its brilliance. These characters create an easy entry point to the hearts and minds of children and young women.

On July 16, Jeffery Morehouse and Brett Weed met with the Deputy Consul General of Japan in Portland, Mr. Hirofumi Murabayashi to follow up on BAC Home’s July 2, 2012 letter to the Prime Minister.

This week parents, members and leadership of Bring Abducted Children Home are delivering a letter addressed to the Prime Minister of Japan to Japanese consulates throughout the U.S.

We call on the Government of Japan to immediately aid and complete the safe return to the United States all American children abducted to Japan, and provide all American children abducted within Japan immediate and unfettered access to their U.S. parent.

Tokyo, Japan
October 22, 2010

We, the Ambassadors to Japan of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the United States, and the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Delegation of the European Union to Japan, the Deputy Heads of Mission of Spain, and the United Kingdom, and the Political Counselor of France, called on Japan’s Minister of Justice today to express our concerns over the increase of international parental abduction cases involving Japan that affect our nationals as well as Japanese citizens, and to urge Japan to ratify the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (“the Convention”).

Our children are kidnapped in Japan and we need your help to get them back home.

Japan is a haven for international child abduction. Not once has Japan ever returned a single abducted child. Once children enter Japan they never return, making it a black hole. Currently over 375 children have been stolen off American soil and abducted to Japan. Members of BAC Home have had their children abducted and/or have been denied access to our children. Shame on Japan for abducting children from around the world. Shame on Japan.