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International child abduction in Japan refers to the illegal international abduction or removal of children from their country of habitual residence by an acquaintance or family member to Japan or their retention in Japan in contravention to the law of another country. Most cases involve a Japanese mother taking her children to Japan in defiance of visitation or joint custody orders issued by Western courts. The issue is a growing problem as the number of international marriages increases. Barring exceptional circumstances, the effects of child abduction are generally detrimental to the welfare of children. Parental abduction often has a particularly devastating effect on parents who may never see their children again. Japan is a party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which obliges signatories to promptly return abducted children to their country of habitual residence. The convention enters into force for Japan on 1 April 2014. The issue had become a cause for significant concern to other parties, the majority of which are Western countries.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Parents hope Japan’s new leaders OK abduction treaty )〕〔Matsutani, Minoru, "(Hague pact no answer to in-country custody fights )", ''Japan Times'', 14 May 2010, p. 3.〕 The National Diet approved accession to the convention in 2013. The main impediment to Japan's becoming a party to the convention was that it would require a change in attitude of the legal system towards child custody rights. Japanese family law considers issues of divorce custody, child support or alimony as predominantly private matters. Consequently, Japan has no enforcement mechanism to enforce foreign custody rulings or recommendations made by its own domestic courts. Furthermore, Japan does not recognise joint parental authority or shared "residence" after divorce. As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, however, Japan is supposed to recognize the right of a child to obtain non-custodial parent visitation. However, the Supreme Court of Japan has recently ruled that this does not amount to the right of non-custodial parents to see their children (it has ruled that state-enforced visitation is the right of neither parent nor children). This ruling, in effect, makes visitation without the cooperation of the custody-holding parent a practical impossibility. == Parental child abduction in law == In some countries, international child abduction is a felony. The US made it so in the International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act of '93. In the United Kingdom the Child Abduction Act 1984 provides that the offence of abduction of a child by a parent is committed only if the child is taken out of the U.K. for a period exceeding one month. In the case of Japan, CNN quoted an unnamed official in the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo who stated, "Our two nations approach divorce and child-rearing differently. Parental child abduction is not considered a crime in Japan." However, this statement is contradicted by several Japanese news media sources which report arrests involving parental abduction in Japan. The Supreme Court of Japan categorically ruled that a parental abduction in which force and coercion is used to remove child constitutes the felony of kidnapping of a minor irrespective of person's custodial right. The case concerned a couple who were separated but not divorced so the abducting father held joint custody. Therefore, while civil liability (or criminal liability in some countries) for parental abduction arise out of custodial interference of a parent and is not legally defined as kidnapping, in Japan, parental abduction is a kidnapping if it disrupts a child's residence or relationship with the primary caregiver. At the same time Japanese family courts have no enforcement mechanism in civil matters so they strongly encourage parents to engage in mediation in order to agree to custody arrangements on their own〔 and rarely intervene in matters such as visitation and child support which are seen as private.〔Ito, Masami, "(Returning to Japan with kids was only safe option, two mothers say )", ''Japan Times'', 14 May 2010, p. 3.〕 Furthermore, it is rare for a nation to extradite one of its own citizens to another country for alleged parental abduction.〔 On the other hand, a foreign national father, trying to re-abduct his child in Japan by force,〔 may face arrest and possible criminal prosecution irrespective of his custodial status in the child's home country.〔 Moreover, a foreign father trying to abduct children by force to another country would face the extra charge of "kidnapping for the purpose of transporting the kidnapped person to a foreign country" (Article 226(1) of the Penal Code), which carries the penalty of imprisonment with labor for a limited period of not less than two years. The law, which was originally designed as an extra penalty for the kidnapping of a minor for sexual slavery in China, is now used for preventing forced abduction from Japan by a parent. This provision of the Penal Code was amended in 2005 so that it covers kidnapping and abduction from any country, not just Japan. This means that it constitutes a criminal offence under Japanese law for a Japanese national to abduct his or her own child by force in another country and bring the child to Japan, and in such cases Japanese police and prosecutors could initiate criminal proceedings. However, this provision likely will not apply to cases where a Japanese mother who is the primary caregiver brings her children back to Japan in defiance of the custodial ruling of a foreign court, as this would not likely be seen to involve coercion or force against the child.〔In the Best Interests of the Court: What American Lawyers Need to Know About Child Custody and Visitation in Japan", Colin P.A. Jones "The crime in question was abduction or enticement for purpose of removing from Japan (国外移送目的略取及び誘拐 kokugai iso mokuteki ryakushu oyobi yukai). KEIHO (CODE ), art. 226. This provision of the Penal Code was amended in 2005 so that it covers kidnapping and abduction from any country not just Japan." pg 258, Note, the author warns on page 169 of a possible bias in the paper due to the fact that the author has lost the custody of his children in Japanese court.()〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「International child abduction in Japan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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