|
ABC interviews parents of children kidnapped to Japan. Several of the fathers have been long time supporters of BAC Home.  TOKYO — The Japanese government set up a task force Tuesday to examine whether to join an international convention on child custody disputes.
The move came as the French Senate adopted a resolution by an overwhelming majority urging Japan to promptly join the 1980 Hague Convention to help resolve cases in which foreign parents are prevented from seeing their children in Japan following failed marriages with Japanese nationals.  Tokyo (CNN) — Parents torn apart from their children protested in Tokyo on Sunday, calling on the Japanese government to sign an international treaty that would reunite them with their sons and daughters.
“Stop parental child abduction,” the parents cried. “Sign the Hague Convention.”  The government has decided to set up a council to weigh joining the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which pertains to disputes over parents’ custodial rights to children born in international marriages, sources said.
In 2006, Chris Gulbraa rode his bike from his home, where he lived with his mother and his brother in Kasugai, Japan. The 15-year-old was going to the airport and he had no intention of ever returning.
Five years earlier, his mother had fled to Japan from the US, essentially kidnapping Chris and his brother during a custody battle. The father, Mike Gulbraa, had run out of options because Japan doesn’t recognize parental rights if they’re non-nationals. But then Mike received a text message from Chris saying he wanted to come home. Escaping to dad After one failed attempt to escape Japan, Chris was under close scrutiny by his mother who’d fled the US with him over a custody battle. But he soon tried again to get back to his dad in the US. At one point, he was stopped at airport customs before boarding his plane. He texted his dad for help. The plan worked, and father and son are now reunited.  Parental child abduction to Japan has become an epidemic that has received its share of dramatic media coverage this year, and even though many countries have long been pressuring Japan to address this issue, the demands for a solution have recently become more frequent, and noticeably more urgent.
 By LEVI PULKKINEN
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF King County prosecutors have filed felony charges against a Bellevue mother accused of fleeing to Japan with her 6-year-old son. According to charging documents, Michiyo Imoto Morehouse, 42, was barred from taking the boy out of the state after a county court awarded primary custody to the boy's father, Morehouse's ex-husband.  YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — International pressure continues to mount on Japan to address the problem of parental child abduction within its borders.
During a meeting Friday with Japan’s Minister of Justice in Tokyo, officials from the European Union as well as representatives from Belgium, Colombia, Germany and Hungary joined the call for Japan to sign the 1981 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The act essentially prevents parents from absconding with their children to or within the 82 signatory countries.  …“I’m a firm believer that children should have the love of both of their parents and so I feel that it is important for these international couples to be able to have both the fathers and the mothers see their children,” Roos said. “I personally think it is a very important issue, and important for Japan to be part of the international community so that both parents can see and raise their children.”
 U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell expressed hope Wednesday that Japan will soon join an international convention to help resolve child custody cases in which American parents are kept from seeing their children in Japan following failed marriages with Japanese nationals.
 The partnership between the United States and Japan is longstanding. It is based on common interests and values, including a shared commitment to promoting economic prosperity, human rights and international law. (click to read more)  The US House of Representatives turned up pressure on close ally Japan, strongly urging Tokyo to return immediately half-Japanese children that lawmakers say have been kidnapped from their US parents.
Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ) condemning Japan for the abduction of U.S. children. Rep James Moran (D-VA) On the floor for H Res 1326 speaking about the Japan Child Abduction crisis.  The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution Wednesday calling on Japan to immediately institute legal fixes to controversial child custody practices that have long dogged failed marriages between U.S and Japanese citizens and led hundreds of American parents to level accusations of kidnapping against their former Japanese spouses.
CNN provides coverage of the H. Res 1326 press conference outside the U.S. Capitol. It includes BAC Home members Paul Toland and Christopher Savoie who both spoke.
 In mid-April, 12-year-old Michiko Watanabe, as she was now being called, found herself in a precarious situation. Earlier, her mother had clearly let her child know that she would no longer consider herself Michiko’s mother if Michiko ever attempted to return to her father. In fact, her mother said that she would never even speak to her again in such a case…
 by Shaun Tandon
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Wednesday stepped up pressure on Japan to end parental abductions, pledging to put a top priority on letting hundreds of foreign parents see their half-Japanese children.  WASHINGTON (AP) – The House turned up the pressure Wednesday on close ally Japan, strongly urging Tokyo to return immediately half-Japanese children that lawmakers say have been kidnapped from their American parents.
 By Charlie Reed
Stars and Stripes Published: September 28, 2010 YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Troops who marry foreign nationals while stationed overseas will get more advice about the child custody issues that can plague international marriages gone sour.The Defense Department has agreed to provide the military legal and family support agencies with more information on the family court systems in countries such as Japan and  In July, Tokyo’s family court granted me, an American, physical custody (kangoken) of my 13-year-old daughter exactly 120 days after she was abducted by my Japanese wife, a lifelong public servant employed as a teacher at a state school in Tokyo. This just may be the first time that Japan’s family court has awarded a foreign father custody of a Japanese child after a successful abduction by the child’s Japanese mother.
 I have been meaning to write something on this topic for quite a while. I first began corresponding with Randy Collins a few months ago through a mutual friend who wondered whether Collins’ story might make for a good Hot Air topic, and he told me of his son Keisuke …
 Randy Collins holds a photo book of his son Keisuke, one of the few things he has to remember his son. Keisuke was taken by his ex-wife a few years ago when she fled to Japan.
 One year ago, Douglass Berg, of Reston, said goodbye to his son and daughter before they boarded a flight with his ex-wife on what was supposed to be a three week visit to her native Japan. He has not seen the children since.
|
Categories
All
Archives
May 2023
|
Bring Abducted Children Home (BAC Home)
RSS Feed
Photo used under Creative Commons from Toomore