Left Behind by Japan

Now, it seems, Tokyo is prepared to ratify the treaty, a step that would bring it in line with much of Europe, North and South America, and Oceania. Although legislation must be approved by the Japanese Diet, a bastion of opposition to perceived international pressure, the government is moving slowly forward on the issue.

However, ratification of the Hague Abduction Convention is in many ways a smokescreen. While Japan is seen to compromise on the international stage, at home its law on child custody remains rigid, anachronistic and, some would say, cruel.

Under Japan’s sole custody system, only one parent maintains shinken (parental rights) following divorce, while the other is stripped of any and all rights with respect to his or her children. This has created a post-breakup environment in which one parent, typically the father, is often denied all access to his or her children. Indeed, to facilitate a clean break, the left behind parent is expected to forgo entirely his or her relationship with the children from the failed marriage.

The impact of this can manifest itself in a variety of ways. Many Japanese fathers simply give up trying to gain access to their children. Others, such as Masahiro Yoshida, take the law into their own hands, often with dire results. In February 2012, Yoshida was arrested for “abducting” his 7-year-old daughter from her elementary school. He is currently awaiting trial and is likely to be given a prison sentence.

In a society notorious for its high suicide rate, it is not surprising that some parents choose to take their own lives rather than bear the pain of separation. This was the case of Akio Yokota, who killed himself in September 2011, four months after being photographed for this project.

More importantly for some, the Hague Abduction Convention is not retroactive. If and when ratified by the Japanese government, it will not address existing cases, such as those of Australian Matt Wyman, whose wife took their two sons "on holiday” to Japan and never returned, and Irishman David Morgan, whose wife moved back to Tokyo with their two children and now denies him all access to them.

Arguably, few married couples in Japan are aware of the child custody issues they face should their marriages fail. Most of the subjects photographed for this project expressed disbelief, frustration and powerlessness with a system that makes little effort to investigate and judge cases on an individual basis. As Japanese society globalizes, variations of the traditional family structure, and even radical shifts away from it, are bound to increase. With these changes come complexities that the country’s simplistic child custody law cannot address with confidence.

As we have seen in other areas, such as nuclear power generation, public awareness and understanding of the issues are paramount. By showing the human face of this creeping tragedy, I hope this project will help highlight the need for a realistic and satisfactory solution.