Japanese father arrested for taking his child
January 22, 2010
Japanese father Masahiro Yoshida was profiled in CBS News (see link below) and other media sources last October.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/07/ap/asia/main5369450.shtml
He has been arrested by the Japanese authorities after taking his daughter from a day care center:
http://kaiju-john.blogspot.com/2010/01/masahiro-yoshida-arrested.html?zx=d6b4d7b49eae234a
Oct. 3 Rally and Vigil for Christopher Savoie
October 5, 2009
On Saturday, October 3, 2009, Children’s Rights Council of Japan organized a “Free Christopher Savoie” Rally in front of the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., demanding that the Japanese government immediately release Christopher Savoie and reunite him with his children, and also acknowledge and resolve all other cases of child abductions in Japan. Speakers included CRC of Japan co-founder Walter Benda, U.S. Navy Commander Paul Toland, Amy Savoie (Christopher Savoie’s wife), Kay Kephart (an American grandmother imprisoned while trying to find her grandchildren), David Levy (head of the national Children’s Rights Council nonprofit organization), and 2 U.S. left-behind fathers, Randy Collins and Lance Litwiller. Media included CNN, NBC, CBS, NHK, FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK NEWS, TV TOKYO, KYODO NEWS, and documentary film maker Matt Antell, fromtheshadowsmovie.com. A candlelight vigil was held that evening in front of the White House.
CNN Campbell Brown video link
September 30, 2009
Here is the link for the Campbell Brown program aired on CNN on Sept. 29.
A special note about the parent interviewed in this segment, U.S. Navy Commander Paul Toland. Paul is the sole surviving parent and his daughter is being retained in Japan by his former mother-in-law. Paul’s case, and at least one other case we are aware of, is like the Elian Gonzalez case, but the aggrieved parent is from the United States, not Cuba, and the country blocking the sole surviving biological parent from contact with his child is Japan.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/09/29/cb.dad.behind.bars.cnn
Imprisonment of foreign parents in Japan not new
September 30, 2009
While the Christopher Savoie case is big news right now, it is not unique, and reflects a possible pattern of Japanese authorities selectively arresting foreign parents in Japan for something Japanese parents would not be arrested for.
The first publicized arrest and imprisonment by Japanese authorities of a foreign parent trying to reunite with his or her children in a contested custody case occurred in 2000, when Dutch father Engel Nieman attempted to leave Japan with his daughter. Nieman, who was still legally married to his Japanese wife at the time, and shared equal custody rights with her under Japanese law, was imprisoned for several months. He met with Children’s Rights Council of Japan in Tokyo after he was released, and as far as we know, still is unable to have any contact with his daughter since his arrest and imprisonment. Here is an old link from the Japan Times with details about his case:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/member/member.html?nn20001213b2.htm
Backup link:
Japanese arrest American father, for child abduction?
September 29, 2009
As non-Japanese left-behind parents with our children kidnapped or illegally retained in Japan, we’ve always been told by the U.S. State Department and Japanese authorities that parental child abduction is not a crime in Japan, and that there is nothing that the Japanese police or other Japanese authorities can do to help us. Now it seems there is a special treatment of parental child abduction by the Japanese authorities when the abducting parent is not Japanese. An American father from Tennessee, Christopher Savoie, with U.S. custody orders in hand, whose two U.S. citizen children recently were illegally retained in Japan by his Japanese ex-wife, is now sitting in a Japanese prison for trying to recover his children. Here is the link to the CNN story with the full details of Christopher Savoie’s attempt to reunite with his children:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/29/japan.father.abduction/index.html
And here is our backup link to the story:
Children's Rights Council of Japan (Japan child abduction) 