Seven more Australian kids abducted as Japan debates custody changes

Tokyo: The number of Australian children abducted in Japan has jumped by almost 10 per cent in the past year as families urge the Japanese parliament to pass laws making parental abduction illegal.

Seven more Australian children have been registered as abducted with the Australian embassy in Tokyo since March, taking the total number of Australian children kidnapped by their Japanese mother or father to 89 since 2004.

Daniel White says his daughter Yui has been abducted in Japan.Credit: Daniel White

In August, a five-year-old was taken from his mother in Sydney. Others have narrowly avoided being abducted, including a two-year-old girl from NSW who was pulled off a flight at the last minute after being put on an airport watch list to stop her from leaving the country.

The figure is a fraction of the hundreds of Japanese children taken each year in Japan where it is legal to abduct your child and disappear.

Tokyo is set to propose legislation in March that would make child abduction illegal and transition Japan from one of the world’s last sole custody systems to joint custody after months of mounting international pressure. Under Japanese law, custody is granted to whoever was last physically with the child and gives them the power to block all future contact with the other parent.

Australian and Japanese parents worry the changes will not go far enough to address the more than century-old legislation that was designed to help women fleeing violent relationships but is now being used by both fathers and mothers to completely cut off the other parent from their kids, including changing the names, addresses, health and education details of their children.

Japanese mothers (from left) Yumi, Komae Suzuki, Kazue and Meiko say their children have been abducted. Credit: Christopher Jue

“The government is torturing us,” said Komae Suzuki, who has not seen her 14-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter in four years after her husband took her kids, put their house up for sale and disappeared.

“It is devastating. Like so many others I feel suicidal.”

Australian father Scott Ellis has not seen his children, Mera and Telina, since they were taken from his home in Queensland almost five years ago. Christmases and birthdays hurt the most. “Another silent birthday for me,” he said. “I would never have dreamt that anything like this could have ever happened to me.”

Gold Coast father Daniel White’s two-year-old daughter Yui was registered as abducted by the Australian embassy last year. The 34-year-old said after four years together in Australia, he and his partner Mayumi Terakado had dreamt of a family holiday to Japan to meet Yui’s grandparents, see temples in Kyoto and visit Universal Studios in Osaka.

Scott Ellis with his children Mera and Telina.

Then it went south. Terakado said she needed to stay to spend more time with her parents.

“At the time, people at work were joking with me, ‘She ain’t gonna come back’,” he said. “But when I looked at my family, I wouldn’t dream of such a scenario. Now I can’t believe that I’ve fallen into the trap. I’m just heartbroken.”

White said he was kicked out of the house. Terakado said she left White and stayed in Japan because he was unfaithful. White says he believed they were no longer together when he slept with someone else. He has had no contact with his daughter since October.

“I’ve handled things wrong ... but I can’t imagine living my life without my daughter. Because now that I’m a dad, my sole purpose for breathing fresh air is to provide everything I can for my daughter,” White said.

White says he has been cut off from all contact with his daughter after his fiancée never returned from a holiday to Japan. Credit: Jamila Toderas

“I’ve been stripped of being able to do that, and I’ve been in some dark places where I’ve honestly considered if it’s worth being here.”

Terakado said: “He could meet her and FaceTime her, but he just got angry because he can’t get what he wants.” White says he can’t contact his daughter because his numbers have been blocked.

“He needs to talk to a Japanese lawyer,” Terakado said.

But the Japanese legal system, which allows lawyers to receive commission from child-support payments, rarely enforces custody rulings or visitation requirements, propping up a multimillion-dollar single-parent support industry that is lobbying hard against the Japanese government’s proposed changes while leaving parents like White in a desperate state.

The Australian government and opposition have escalated their criticism of Tokyo after this masthead and 60 Minutes revealed last year that dozens of Australian children have been abducted as Japanese police routinely ignored Interpol missing persons notices to locate the children.

New documents released under freedom of information laws reveal plans for “a broader strategy” to tackle child abduction after Tokyo objected to the Australian government’s use of the term “abduction”, causing a rare public dispute between the close diplomatic partners.

Department of Foreign Affairs ministerial briefing documents ahead of a meeting with Japanese officials put it bluntly: “What we want: co-operation on child abduction and custody issues.”

Japanese Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maki Kobayashi defended Tokyo’s handling of the cases. “There are various opinions, both internal and domestically and internationally, regarding their custody system,” she said. “We are meeting our international obligations.”

But abducted children have also accused the Japanese government of destroying their relationship with both their parents.

Anthony Soma always stood out in his high school class of 300 in Kyoto. He was the only child with a foreign parent. “Gaijin” they called him, “a person from the outside”, after he was taken from the US to Japan when he was six.

Soma was told by his mother that his father was insane. Then he found him on Facebook. After meeting him in the US last year he confronted his Japanese mother, who told Soma never to come home and cut off all contact with him.

Anthony Soma says child abduction is tearing families apart in Japan. Credit: Christopher Jue

Soma, 24, said he was speaking out because he believed that the lives of thousands of children abducted in Japan had been damaged.

“My relationship with my mother is broken,” Soma said. “I don’t want to be on my father’s side. I don’t want to be on my mother’s side. I just want to have my point of view as a child to hear both sides.”

Soma is one of hundreds of children abducted in Japan each year as divorce rates skyrocket. Abductions have become so widespread that companies are being warned by law firms that the threat of abduction needs to be factored into their due diligence.

“We are now living in a world where companies need to prepare for the kidnapping of employees’ biological children,” said the Victim Mothers of Parental Child Abduction advocacy group.

The proposed changes to Japan’s custody laws will be implemented over two years if the Japanese parliament passes them in March.

The laws will be retrospective, allowing parents who do not have sole custody now to apply for joint custody. They will also make parental abduction illegal for the first time. However, some families worry that they are running out of time and that conservative Japanese judges and understaffed police will be reluctant to enforce the new laws.

Yoshie, who asked to be referred to by her first name because abductions are politically and legally sensitive in Japan, counted each of the 1355 days she got to spend with her grandchildren.

The 67-year-old and her husband, Hideo, rented an apartment near the rural Japanese town where her grandchildren lived after her son’s relationship with his wife broke down. They have been blocked from seeing them for the past four years after a court ordered that they had infringed the “moral rights” of the mother who abducted them by living in the same town.

Grandparents Hideo and Yoshie say they have been unable to see their grandchildren in four years. Credit: Christopher Jue

“We used to play together and go to the zoo or the park. It was the happiest time of our lives,” Yoshie said. “I don’t want them to forget me. I will never forget them.”

Yumi, a mother from Tokyo who also asked to be identified by her first name only, knows the intergenerational trauma the laws have caused.

Yumi was taken away from her father when she was a toddler. Then her daughter was abducted by her husband when she was three years old. She has not spent time with her daughter in more than seven years.

“Every day she is getting older, maybe one day I will be able to show her: ‘I’m always thinking about you’,” she said, holding a photo of her child as her eyes well up.

Yumi and Suzuki are both members of the mothers’ advocacy group. They say the sole custody system is treating them like criminals.

“I’m embarrassed to be Japanese,” Suzuki said.

Yumi’s case is now before the high court. She lost her first appeal and was told by the judge to stop pursuing the matter because it was burdensome for the child.

“Foreign visitors keep saying: ‘Japan is a beautiful country and Japanese people are so nice and sweet’,” Yumi said. “It’s all lies.”

If you or anyone you know needs support call Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.