...But the issue of child abduction in Japan has now morphed into a full-blown diplomatic stand-off for Tokyo, not just with France, but Australia and the United States. French authorities estimate more than 100 children have been caught up in similar circumstances to the 68 Australian children. The United States has 475 children in such situations.
During the Olympic Games, French father Vincent Fichot went on an almost three-week hunger strike outside Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium. He had not seen his kids in three years after his wife abruptly disappeared with them.
“The problem with Japan is it is a zero-sum game, there can only be a winner and a loser,” said Australian mother-of-two Catherine Henderson who has spent more than two years attempting to see her kids in Tokyo after her Japanese husband packed up and left with them in April 2019.
“There is nothing about the best interests of the child.”
(Jeffery) Morehouse has won two custody cases in the US against his Japanese wife but has not seen his son Mochi in more than a decade.
“They erase the other parent,” he said. “When a child is kidnapped their whole life is built on a foundation of lies.”
During the Olympic Games, French father Vincent Fichot went on an almost three-week hunger strike outside Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium. He had not seen his kids in three years after his wife abruptly disappeared with them.
“The problem with Japan is it is a zero-sum game, there can only be a winner and a loser,” said Australian mother-of-two Catherine Henderson who has spent more than two years attempting to see her kids in Tokyo after her Japanese husband packed up and left with them in April 2019.
“There is nothing about the best interests of the child.”
(Jeffery) Morehouse has won two custody cases in the US against his Japanese wife but has not seen his son Mochi in more than a decade.
“They erase the other parent,” he said. “When a child is kidnapped their whole life is built on a foundation of lies.”
Henderson, like many of the parents, is continuing to pursue her case through the Japanese courts and is part of several class actions.
Internally, Japan is littered with its own cases of parents obtaining custody of their kids and the other parent being banned from speaking to their children.
Internally, Japan is littered with its own cases of parents obtaining custody of their kids and the other parent being banned from speaking to their children.
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