David Hodson on International Family Law: Japanese family law

Family law in the land of the rising sun and the abducted daughter

Leading Japanese family lawyer Mikiko Otani (motani@t-leo.com) has helpfully and forthrightly written on child abduction in Japan for the September 2010 edition of Jordans International Family Law journal. She describes the practice within Japan of sorting out children arrangements on parental separation. Japan remains one of the most closed jurisdictions within the international family law world with procedures laws and practices which seem at times to be utterly odds with conventional national and international practice. Mikiko's article hugely helps understand the Japanese position.

There is no law prohibiting parental child abduction national or international unless by physical force. It is not a criminal offence. An abduction to Japan in breach of orders of other countries will be treated only as a national enquiry into the best interests of the child with no or minimal weight given to the...

Read the full article here.