TIMECODE

DIALOGUE

10:00:00

[intro music and images/logo]

10:00:02

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  In Japan divorce often leads to one parent losing all contact with their kids.

10:00:09

IZUMI UCHIYAMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

It’s painful. 

I have no idea what their daily lives are like.

10:00:15

SHINJI KOJIMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

Until my son is of legal adult age, I personally think

I will not be able to meet him.

10:00:23

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Judges usually grant sole custody to whoever was last physically with the child which critics say encourages parents to abduct their kids.

10:00:34

VINCENT FICHOT:  I come back to an empty house.  And I quickly realised that that was it my-my-my kids had taken.

10:00:40

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Now the country’s changing the law to allow judges to impose joint custody.

10:00:47

ANTHONY SOMA:  I just want to have a relationship with both people.

10:00:51

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  But there’s opposition, including from survivors of domestic violence.

10:00:57

FEMALE:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

We’ll have to discuss matters such as

where we live with my former partner.

10:01:05

101 East investigates Japan’s parental child abductions.

10:01:11

GFX:

101 EAST

10:01:16

GFX:

JAPAN’S PARENTAL ABDUCTIONS

BY ADRIAN BOWN, NICK OLLE & AUN QI KOH

10:01:25

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  This is a road which Izumi Uchiyama knows well.   She travels it several times a month.  It’s a journey driven by desperation.

10:01:40

IZUMI UCHIYAMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

When I pass through here, I always think that I might see

the children just as they’re leaving school…

or that we might cross paths and I wonder if I might be able

to see their faces even if just for a moment.

10:01:53

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Izumi hasn’t spoken to her son and two daughters for seven years, not since she says their father abducted them.

10:02:03

IZUMI UCHIYAMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:
I do feel lonely.

But more than the isolation I feel…

the children probably feel even more

isolated and lonely.

10:02:19

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Determining child custody is always a sad process.  But more so it seems in Japan, where more than 100,000 children lose contact with a parent every year.  Izumi lives in a modest one-bedroom ground floor apartment in Chiba about 50 kilometres from Tokyo.  She just manages to support herself by selling insurance.

10:02:48

IZUMI UCHIYAMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

Being alone, I work from

Monday to Friday.

After work, I come back home,

have supper, take a bath and sleep.

I do not have any particular joy or

any other things to do in daily life.

10:03:09

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  A judge suggested that she and her children could send each other six letters a year.  That’s the extent of her contact.

10:03:20

IZUMI UCHIYAMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

It’s painful.  Since I only have these pictures, I have no idea

what their daily lives are like, so I feel worried.

For the most part they are all like this.

There are no pictures of them smiling.

10:03:36

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  As well as obscene gestures she’s also received abusive messages from her children calling her stupid and telling her to go hell.

10:03:47

IZUMI UCHIYAMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

They were not children to say things like that,

so I was so shocked.

But it’s not just that.  I’m truly worried about them, if they are in

circumstances in which they’re being forced to write such things.

10:04:10

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:   When Izumi decided to leave her husband it became a race to get the children.  Initially they were with her, but within four months they were living with her husband.  And a Judge ruled that’s where they should stay finding that as the children’s father he hadn’t kidnapped them.

10:04:33

IZUMI UCHIYAMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

My husband argued that the children did not want to meet me

and the court accepted his argument.

For the first two years, I believed in the Japanese justice system,

that I would be able to meet my children…

and so I kept fighting in court.

10:04:58

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Twice Izumi has asked the court to grant her physical access to her children.  Both times it was denied.  A third petition is ongoing.

10:05:10

IZUMI UCHIYAMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

Although I can’t meet them today,

I’m sure that I will meet them sometime in the future.

10:05:23

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Shinji Kojima has also lost out in Japan's courts.  It's been eight years since he last saw his son after sole custody was granted to his ex-wife.  The former boxer asked us not to use his real name.  Child custody disputes are a sensitive issue in Japan.  For six months he saw his young son once or twice a month but then everything changed.

10:05:53

SHINJI KOJIMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

Every time I met my child he’d say to me, “Dad, please help me”,

while crying and kicking, screaming for my help.

10:06:04

[child’s voice on mobile phone]

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  He says this video proves it.  The boy pleads to stay with Shinji when his mother comes to collect him.

[child’s voice on mobile phone]

CHILD:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

Not your house!

I want to say with Dad!

10:06:22

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  A month later Shinji says he did what any father would do.  He didn’t return his son.  His wife took him to court but the video had the opposite effect.

10:06:35

SHINJI KOJIMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

The judge said I made my child do it.

That I made him act.

When I see this,

I want to cry.

10:06:53

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  The last time father and son saw each other was when Shinji was arrested.

10:07:00

SHINJI KOJIMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

It was in the morning when they rang the bell and

when I opened the door…

16 police officers

came into my house.

They came swooping in,

held me down and arrested me.

10:07:20

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  He was held for three months at this police station, sharing a cell with other men.

10:07:27

SHINJI KOJIMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

They would thoroughly grill me for eight hours a day for 20 days.

It was really hard.

“You made your kid act,

didn’t you?”

“You made him cry on purpose,

didn’t you?”

They said I did things like that.

Mentally, I was really tormented.  I couldn’t eat,

I couldn’t do anything.

I lost 20 kilograms.

10:08:00

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Shinji says he was only released after pleading guilty to kidnapping his son.

10:08:08

SHINJI KOJIMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

Our child, of course, is the biggest victim.

But I believe that me and my ex-wife are also victims of the system.

Therefore, until my son is of legal adult age,

I personally think I will not be able to meet him.

10:08:27

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  He’s now remarried and has two children.

10:08:31

SHINJI KOJIMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

Truly if it weren’t for them, I think mentally

I would be in much worse shape.

I’ve told my younger children, “You’ve got an older brother”,

and they always say to me that they’d like to meet him soon.

10:08:53

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  It’s not just Japanese parents who’ve been fighting to end the country’s sole custody law, but foreigners too.  Some of them are at this gathering at so-called Left Behind Parents who have been denied the right to see their children.  And after growing international pressure on May the 17^th 2024 Japan’s Parliament changed the law allowing the court to impose joint custody if its deemed in the best interests of the child.

10:09:27

MALE:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES: 

My life and my whole world changed.

Where I am, what I’m doing,

I feel my daily life before my eyes is not reality.

ADRIAN BROWN:  Do you believe you’ll see your child again?

MALE:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

All I can do is say I hope to.

ADRIAN BROWN:  And do you still have faith in Japan’s justice system?

MALE:  [Japanese]. 

SUBTITLES:
I don’t believe in them. 

ADRIAN BROWN:  No.

MALE:  No.

10:09:58

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Frenchman Vincent Fichot has been at the forefront of the Left Behind Parents campaign.  It’s cost the former financier his high-flying career.  He last saw his two children in August 2018 at the start of what he thought would be just another day.

10:10:18

VINCENT FICHOT:  So on Friday 10th 2018 I came back from work, um, and the house was empty from floor to ceilings.  And I quickly realised that that was it my-my-my kids had been taken.  And I tried getting hold of my wife, um, and she wouldn't, she wouldn't replied.  And then I went to, um, I went to the mailbox and I got a letter from her lawyer saying that my ah my kids were taken, um, that I should not expect to see them again.

10:10:44

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  He now lives back home with his parents in the French city of Marseille, returning to Tokyo whenever he can.  When he last saw his children they were just infants.

10:10:58

VINCENT FICHOT:  It’s tough, um.  Because you know when I’m in Tokyo I could and I could just walk by them in the streets, um, without, and I wouldn’t even recognise them, um.  The hardest part is not knowing how they look like.  It’s it’s not knowing how they f- how they are, if they are healthy, if they are happy, um.  If they n- if they need anything, um.  This this is very difficult to-to handle to be frank.

10:11:25

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:   Vincent has resorted to desperate measures.  During the 2021 Tokyo Olympics he went on hunger strike for 20 days losing 14 kilos.  Three years on he refuses to give up on his children.

10:11:43

ADRIAN BROWN:  Do you think you’ll ever see them again?

VINCENT FICHOT:  Of course because I wouldn’t be fighting if-if there was no hopes, um.  But I think it’s going to take another ten to fifteen years.

10:11:56

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  He’s now on his fifth lawyer, having already spent more than $300,000.00 on legal fees.  Akira Ueno says the change to the law is superficial but concedes it’s his client’s only hope.

10:12:13

AKIRA UENO:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

He’s lost at the High Court so his last chance is with this new law

and all he can do is put it in the hands of the law.

10:12:28

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Akira was a Left Behind Parent himself.  He knows all too well how difficult it is to win custody cases when the other parent has taken the children.

10:12:40

ADRIAN BROWN:  How many cases have you taken on?

AKIRA UENO:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

As a lawyer I have taken on

over 100 cases.

ADRIAN BROWN:  And how many have you won?

AKIRA UENO:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

There was only one that I won.  But even that one case that we won

at the first trial was overturned by the Tokyo High Court.

10:13:03

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Vincent says unless the new law is properly enforced it’s destined to fail.

10:13:10

VINCENT FICHOT:  The law is not going to change much ah at least for me, um and I’m hoping that it’s going to bring change for the next generation of children.  But really it won’t change anything to me.  Ah and the reason I’m saying that is the issue is not the law in Japan.  It’s rather the rule of law.

10:13:27

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  As in Izumi’s case a judge ruled that Vincent’s children were merely taken away and not kidnapped.

10:13:36

VINCENT FICHOT:  It’s a way for the Japanese system to circumvent any international and even Japanese obligation towards parental abduction.  Because they don’t call it an abduction per say.  So if you go to the police they would refuse ah you to-to use that term.  And when I was in court many times I ah I was telling the judge that my children had-had been abducted and I was threatened to be escorted out of the room if I kept on using that word.

10:14:03

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Japan’s Government has consistently claimed it’s complaint with international law.  This is the Family Court where the fate of so many children in Japan is decided.  It’s under the control of the Justice Ministry where officials declined our request for an interview.

10:14:29

[street protestors chanting]

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Survivors of domestic violence have been among the most vocal critics of custody reforms.  They want the new legislation scrapped because they fear it could expose them and their children to danger.

10:14:56

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  This mother agreed to speak with 101 East at her lawyer’s office, as long as we didn’t identify her.

10:15:04

WOMAN:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

If my ex-husband knew that I was appearing on this program,

he would get angry and I might face harassment from him.

10:15:14

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  She says she left the relationship after years of verbal and economic abuse and coercive control.  She and her daughter have had no contact with her former husband since 2010.

10:15:29

WOMAN:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

We’ll have to discuss matters such as

where we live with my former partner.

Then the assailant can come to your area

and harass you in various ways…

and in bad cases even physically

harm you.

10:15:45

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  To many Japan’s legal system has been at odds with its reputation as one of the world’s most developed countries.  It’s part of the G7, an informal grouping of wealthy nations.  But until now Japan was the only member not to legally recognise joint custody.  Allies including Australia, Germany and Italy have posted travel advisories warning of the threat of parental child abductions.

10:16:17

ADRIAN BROWN:  This law is supposed to bring Japan in line with most of the world.  But no-one it seems is happy.  Parents separated from their children say it doesn’t go far enough.  And victims of domestic violence say it could once more expose them to danger.  And then there’s the voices of the children.  One of them, who’s now a young adult, has agreed to talk to us.

10:16:45

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Anthony Soma was born in America but has spent three quarters of his life in Japan. 

[door knock]

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  His Japanese mother brought him here when he was seven.

ADRIAN BROWN:  Anthony hi.  It’s Adrian Brown.

ANTHONY SOMA:  Hi.

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  He says she later told him that his father was insane.  At school he felt different.

10:17:08

ANTHONY SOMA:  At that time I think that mixed race people is not that common, was not that common in Japan.  My background was from a totally different culture from Japan so I stood out.  I felt absolutely lonely because most family has both parents and they have a happy life there but for me I just had my mother and my grandparents and I still loved my father my so much so I really missed him.

10:17:42

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  His classmates called him gaijin the Japanese word for outsider.  He says he spoke to his father a few times on the phone, before his mother forbade further contact.

10:17:55

ANTHONY SOMA:  So the last I met my father was when I was ah eleven or twelve years old.  My mother hadn’t explained me that much about why I came to Japan and that was a big question for me.  And I always wanted to know why I can’t see my father.

10:18:22

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Looking for answers he began the search to find his father.  He eventually discovered him on Facebook, living in Texas.  In 2023 Anthony went there to meet him.

10:18:38

ANTHONY SOMA:  Well I think most people will imagine like a really emotional meeting, like hugging each other.  But actually it wasn’t like that.

10:18:52

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  They hadn’t spoken for 11 years.  He says at first the reunion was awkward.

10:19:02

ANTHONY SOMA:   We are father and son.  But we didn’t have the opportunity to to build the relationship.  So I guess that I have to act as a son.  And my father has to also had to act as a father but he doesn’t know how to.

10:19:26

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  The meeting with his father was in marked contrast to the one he had with his mother when he turned to Japan.

10:19:34

ANTHONY SOMA:  And I got very upset because there were so many stories that I haven’t heard.  So we had a pretty big fight.

10:19:44

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  His mother has now cut off all contact with him.

10:19:50

ADRIAN BROWN:  Do you hold out hope that there can be a reconciliation?

ANTHONY SOMA:  I really hope so.  I just love both parents.  So if I take my mother, I’m going to lose my father.  If I take my father, I’m going to lose my mother.  I just don’t want that.  I just want to have a relationship with both people.

ADRIAN BROWN:  You don’t want to take sides.

ANTHONY SOMA:  Yeah I don’t want to take sides at all.

10:20:14

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Anthony says his childhood left him with low self-esteem.  He welcomes the change to the law.

10:20:22

ANTHONY SOMA:  I think it is a really good change.  I believe that every children has the right to build a relationship with both parents.  That means that adults should support the the children’s opinion.  And if I had spent more time with my father I’m sure that I was more confident to myself.

10:20:57

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Tokyo’s Waseda University has one of the country’s most prestigious law faculties.   I’ve come here to meet Professor Masayuki Tanamura, an expert in Japanese family law.  The Government sought his advice on the legal reform.

10:21:16

PROFESSOR MASAYUKI TANAMURA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

I believe that the idea and principle that the child

should come first is very important.

For this reason, the opinion of the child

should be explicitly made.

10:21:34

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  But his recommendation that the Court consider the child’s wishes was ignored.

10:21:41

PROFESSOR MASAYUKI TANAMURA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

There was strong opposition to this

and as a result, it was not included.

10:21:48

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  He also feels judges have too much power in child custody cases.

10:21:54

PROFESSOR MASAYUKI TANAMURA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

The judge’s discretion is very broad,

so the possibility of unpredictability…

and also the decisions can differ

depending on the individual judge…

is a frustration held

by the people.

Limiting the discretion would be good.

10:22:25

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  The change to the law won’t be fully implemented until 2026.

10:22:32

ADRIAN BROWN:  Well this is the Bill or rather a photocopy of the Bill.  And as you can see it’s a pretty weighty legal document.  Lots of words about joint custody, sole custody and of course what’s in the best interests of the child.  But there’s one issue this document doesn’t address, parental abduction.

10:22:55

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Everyone we spoke to has been through the gamut of emotions, anger, grief, despair, and sadness.  And on all sides of this debate there’s agreement on one thing.  Japan’s justice system has made a bad situation worse.

10:23:22

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Mount Fuji is a long way from the frenzy of Tokyo.  It’s one of Japan’s most enduring and powerful symbols.  For followers of both Buddhism and Shintoism it’s regarded as a sacred, spiritual and lucky place.

10:23:43

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  Shinji tries to visit this temple in its shadow once a month.

10:23:48

SHINJI KOJIMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

I started coming to this temple to pray for my child’s health

and happiness and that we can meet again one day.

Both of us in good spirits.

10:24:04

[praying]

ADRIAN BROWN VOICEOVER:  He’s tried everything else he says, so why not prayer. 

10:24:13

SHINJI KOJIMA:  [Japanese]

SUBTITLES:

I feel hopeless about the Japanese legal system,

so I can’t expect anything at all.

In court I have fought

for my innocence.

I reached the conclusion that there is nothing left

for me to do but pray.

10:24:52

GFX:

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10:25:00

[end]