A boy pulls away from his mother on the sidewalk in Tokyo, Nov. 7, 2007. (Toru Hanai/Reuters)

Savoie's choice: abduct or fight?

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An American father wants his children back. Japan says no.

By Justin McCurry - GlobalPost

Published: October 27, 2009 05:45 ET
Updated: October 27, 2009 08:18 ET

TOKYO, Japan — Under normal circumstances it would be impossible to summon any sympathy for a man who snatches two young children as they walk to school with their mother.

But what if the “abductor” is the children’s father, and the mother, his former wife, herself the subject of an arrest warrant?

When Christopher Savoie, an American, went to these extraordinary lengths to regain custody of his children from his Japanese ex-wife last month, he not only landed himself in a police cell for more than two weeks, he also placed the spotlight firmly on Japan’s complicity in international parental child abduction — turning it from a minor irritant into a potential source of genuine tension between Washington and Tokyo.

Savoie was arrested after attempting to take his children, aged 9 and 6, to the U.S. consulate general in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, in September.

The 38-year-old from Tennessee, and his former wife, Noriko, lived in Japan for several years before moving to the U.S. in 2008. When they divorced in the U.S. in January this year, Noriko was granted primary custody of the children.

Despite giving assurances that she would remain with the children in the U.S., in August she took them to Japan, without Savoie’s knowledge and in defiance of a court order. The U.S. authorities awarded Savoie full custody in Noriko’s absence and issued a warrant for her arrest on suspicion of “custodial interference.”

Yet Savoie has no legal right to see his children for as long as they remain in Japan, which refuses to sign the 1980 Hague Convention on International Child Abduction.

The treaty, with 81 signatories including every other member of the G7, states that a “child whose parents reside in different countries shall have the right to maintain on a regular basis … personal relations and direct contacts with both parents.”

Savoie’s is one of about 80 cases of international parental child abduction involving U.S. citizens, while France and Britain are dealing with 35 each.

The unofficial number is much higher, particularly when failed marriages between Japanese and people from other Asian countries are included. The Assembly for French Overseas Nationals for Japan estimates that 10,000 children with dual citizenship in Japan are prevented from seeing their foreign parent after separation or divorce.

Comments:

3 Comments.

Posted by USA NO.1 on October 28, 2009 20:17 ET

you repeat same article,nothing new, Yes, USA is NO.1

Posted by jefferymleving on October 29, 2009 10:45 ET

Through my work as a Fathers’ Rights attorney (http://dadsrights.com), I have been involved in litigating many Hague Convention cases. On October 27, I had a private meeting with high ranking State Department officials to provide legal advice and strategic recommendations for the US State Department regarding international parental child abduction in Mexico, Brazil, and other non-compliant countries as well as the urgent need to convince non-participating countries to sign the treaty. We were informed at the meeting that President Obama may be addressing concerns regarding Japan’s failure to return any allegedly abducted US children during an upcoming diplomatic visit to Japan. I am encouraged by the Federal Government’s renewed focus on international abduction and am optimistic that bringing Japan into the treaty will result in justice for parents like Savoie who are fighting to bring their children home.

Jeffery M. Leving

http://dadsrights.com

Posted by seattlefather on October 29, 2009 15:57 ET

Jeffery,

As a parent with an existing case I am not sure that joining the Hague will do that much for existing cases. A big fear is that the push to sign the Hague will result in the Hague being signed and then the issue being dropped (it will be an appeasement effort, if you will). Current Japanese law will not allow for the resolution of any existing cases or the enforcement of any decisions if a resolution was reached. We are all however expecting that this issue will finally be acknowledged by US officials on the upcoming diplomatic visit(Long overdue!!!!).

We cannot simply accept (let alone get excited about) Japan signing the Hague without an acknowlegement that existing cases will be addressed, case by case and that future cases will be handled in a manner that results in an enforceable solution, not the standard lies and excuses. Of course Japan has been studying or reviewing or investigating the child abduction aspects of the hague convention for 20 odd years... it would be a start if they actually signed them though, that is for sure.