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About Children's Rights Council of Japan
Children’s Rights Council of Japan was founded by David Brian Thomas and Walter Benda on May 5, 1996, “Children’s Day” in Japan. We are a volunteer child advocacy organization, offering information and resources for children’s rights issues in Japan, focusing on children of divorce, separation, or born out of wedlock.
CRC of Japan may be able to help in matters pertaining to the Japanese family court system and the Japanese appeals system, as well as the prevention of child abductions and many other aspects in Japan and other countries relating to child abduction/kidnapping by family members, denial of visitation/access rights, child custody, divorce and separation, and child/spousal abuse.
As of April 1, 2014, Japan became a party to the Hague abduction convention, which is an important tool for those seeking the return of children abducted across international borders, or to exercise their rights of access to see them. It remains to be seen if this treaty will be enacted in good faith, and if Japanese law enforcement and social service agencies will assist to enforce custody orders, international arrest warrants, and extradition requests relating to international child abduction. Other obstacles remain, such as the fact that Japan continues to indirectly support international child abduction by not having a formal two-parent signature requirement for obtaining passports for minors.
Statistics obtained by CRC of Japan from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) paint a gloomy picture of the lack of success U.S. parents have had in these cases:
-As of October 2012, NCMEC’s database reflects that in ninety-three percent (93%) of its active (unresolved) cases involving children taken from the U.S. to Japan, NCMEC has been seeking the return of the children for two years or longer and forty-four percent (44%) of these cases have remained unresolved for five years or longer.
-NCMEC’s database also reflects that, out of all of its closed cases involving children taken from the U.S. to Japan, seventy-six percent (76%) of the children were never recovered.
CRC of Japan estimates that there are 2,000 or more new cases in Japan each year (http://www.crcjapan.com/statistics.html), involving not just U.S. citizen children, but children from all over the world. Practically all these children grow up completely isolated from their foreign parent throughout their childhood. It is not known how many, if any, ever re-establish a meaningful relationship with their foreign parent once they reach adulthood.
Despite these challenges, CRC of Japan is working to provide meaningful access between children in Japan and their left-behind parents, and to change the Japanese system to make it more amenable to the concept of “the best parent is both parents,” so that children of broken homes have equal access to their fathers and mothers.
CRC of Japan may be able to help in matters pertaining to the Japanese family court system and the Japanese appeals system, as well as the prevention of child abductions and many other aspects in Japan and other countries relating to child abduction/kidnapping by family members, denial of visitation/access rights, child custody, divorce and separation, and child/spousal abuse.
As of April 1, 2014, Japan became a party to the Hague abduction convention, which is an important tool for those seeking the return of children abducted across international borders, or to exercise their rights of access to see them. It remains to be seen if this treaty will be enacted in good faith, and if Japanese law enforcement and social service agencies will assist to enforce custody orders, international arrest warrants, and extradition requests relating to international child abduction. Other obstacles remain, such as the fact that Japan continues to indirectly support international child abduction by not having a formal two-parent signature requirement for obtaining passports for minors.
Statistics obtained by CRC of Japan from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) paint a gloomy picture of the lack of success U.S. parents have had in these cases:
-As of October 2012, NCMEC’s database reflects that in ninety-three percent (93%) of its active (unresolved) cases involving children taken from the U.S. to Japan, NCMEC has been seeking the return of the children for two years or longer and forty-four percent (44%) of these cases have remained unresolved for five years or longer.
-NCMEC’s database also reflects that, out of all of its closed cases involving children taken from the U.S. to Japan, seventy-six percent (76%) of the children were never recovered.
CRC of Japan estimates that there are 2,000 or more new cases in Japan each year (http://www.crcjapan.com/statistics.html), involving not just U.S. citizen children, but children from all over the world. Practically all these children grow up completely isolated from their foreign parent throughout their childhood. It is not known how many, if any, ever re-establish a meaningful relationship with their foreign parent once they reach adulthood.
Despite these challenges, CRC of Japan is working to provide meaningful access between children in Japan and their left-behind parents, and to change the Japanese system to make it more amenable to the concept of “the best parent is both parents,” so that children of broken homes have equal access to their fathers and mothers.