Japanese women are kidnappers?

Source:Sankei

The American major television company, "ABC news" featured the custody problem regarding the divorced international marriage between Japanese female and American male, and it caused controversy in Japanese administration official.　ABC news called Japanese women as criminals. Because despite being a civil issue, they still brought their children back to Japan.

This issue was even brought up during the foreign ministerial conference between Japan and the US, and it may develop into a diplomatic problem between them.

During the TV show, an American man came on stage and said "When I came back from my overseas  deployment of troops, my wife and children were gone." Another participant tearfully pleaded to meet his child.

The TV show broadcasted that they researched in Japan a boy using a picture as clue provided by an American man.

An ABC newscaster followed the Japanese woman who carries her son ridden on the rack of a bicycle, and asked her that if you were a kidnapper in English. She said "I had to either kidnap my son or commit a suicide so I couldn't live in the US.

During the foreign ministerial conference between Japan and the US on February 1st, Clinton US secretary of State requested Japanese Foreign Minister Maehara to finalize early the Hague Agreement concerning taking back children Japan. He responded “We are considering this seriously”.

Allegedly, the reason why Japanese women took their children back is to escape from the domestic violence, though the truth is still unclear.

The background of this problem might be the difference between Japan and U.S law of custody.

In US, if you get divorced, both you and your spouse may be able to get the custody if you have the agreeement while in Japan, either you or your spouse get the custody by the civil law.

ABC news cited that the FBI is considering this case as an abduction case. The nation-wide issue may become a flash point of a new Japan-bashing that follows the issue with the Japanese major car company, Toyota, which faced a barrage of criticism about the recalls of their cars. japanese officials of America anxiously quoted, "we can't avoid deterioration of feeling”