Japan urged to solve global child custody disputes

TOKYO — Ambassadors from the U.S. and seven other countries urged Japan on Friday to quickly resolve a growing number of international child custody disputes, a day after Japanese police freed an American man accused of snatching his own children.

Japanese law allows only one divorced parent as custodian — almost always the mother — leaving many fathers without access to their children until they are grown.

In a growing number of custody cases, Japanese mothers bring their children back to Japan and refuse to let their foreign ex-husbands visit.

U.S. Ambassador John Roos and ambassadors from Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Italy, New Zealand and Spain told Justice Minister Keiko Chiba that Japan should sign an international convention on child abduction and set up ways to allow foreign parents to visit their children.

“We place the highest priority on the welfare of children who have been the victims of international parental child abduction and believe that our children should grow up with access to both parents,” they said in a joint statement after the meeting.

Japanese police on Thursday released Christopher Savoie, who was arrested Sept. 28 after his Japanese ex-wife told police he grabbed their two children, ages 8 and 6, as she was walking them to school, forced them into a car and drove away.

In an e-mail Friday to The Associated Press, Christopher Savoie’s wife, Amy, wrote, “Christopher’s case definitely helped to shine a light on the situation! It is a step in the right direction…”

Prosecutors have not pressed charges against Christopher Savoie, but they haven’t yet dropped the case, authorities said. Kidnapping minors in Japan carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

Savoie was allowed to leave Japan on the condition he not take the children with him. He also promised to settle the dispute with his ex-wife through negotiations, according to the office of his Japanese lawyer, Tadashi Yoshino. Amy Savoie said he is recuperating at an undisclosed location.

“After suffering the loss of the most significant part of his family, Christopher will be nurturing the family that is left,” she wrote. “He learned that kids can be taken from you in an instant. Enjoy them every moment.”

The Savoies lived in Japan from 2001 and 2008 and moved to the U.S. in 2008. The couple was divorced in Tennessee in January, and Noriko Savoie was given primary custody.

In August, she brought the children to Japan without telling her ex-husband. A U.S. court issued a warrant for her arrest, stripped her custodian status and granted it to her ex-husband.

The eight ambassadors renewed their demands that Japan sign the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, which all their countries have joined. The convention seeks to ensure that custody decisions are made by the courts in the country where the children originally lived and that the rights of access of both parents are protected.

Tokyo has argued that signing the convention may not protect Japanese women and their children from abusive foreign husbands, but Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told reporters Friday that Japan is considering signing the convention.

“Each country has different views on parenting, and we are studying how to resolve the issue,” Okada said.