Colin P.A. Jones - The Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Jun 29, 2010

No need to know the law, but you must obey it

A few months ago I met with some Western diplomats who were looking for information about Japanese law — in particular, an answer to the question, "Is parental child abduction a crime?" As international child abduction has become an increasingly sore point between Japan and other countries, foreign envoys have been making concerted efforts to understand the issue from the Japanese side. Having been told repeatedly by their Japanese counterparts that it is not a crime, some diplomats may be confused by recent cases of non-Japanese parents being arrested, even convicted for "kidnapping" their own children. I don't think I helped much, since my contribution was something along the lines of "Well, it probably depends on whether the authorities need it to be a crime."

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Apr 20, 2010

Not showing at a family court near you

I have seen the secret Japanese video. No, not the one where you die within a week of watching it, the other one — the one about how traumatic divorce and parental separation are for children.

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Feb 2, 2010

Children's rights, judicial wrongs

Last in a two-part series

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Jan 26, 2010

Judges fill the gaps in Japan's family law

First in a two-part series

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Nov 24, 2009

Every husband a potential 'abuser'

Before the Christopher Savoie case hit the news, Japanese commentators on the Hague Convention on international parental child abduction had already begun fretting over the completely unsubstantiated assertion that "almost all" instances of children being brought to Japan involve a Japanese mother fleeing from an abusive foreign father. Would Japan signing the convention result in them being sent back? they asked. This is not an unreasonable concern, though I doubt any of these commentators would go so far as to approve of foreign parents taking children out of Japan to escape an abusive Japanese spouse.

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Nov 24, 2009

Every husband a potential 'abuser'

Before the Christopher Savoie case hit the news, Japanese commentators on the Hague Convention on international parental child abduction had already begun fretting over the completely unsubstantiated assertion that "almost all" instances of children being brought to Japan involve a Japanese mother fleeing from an abusive foreign father. Would Japan signing the convention result in them being sent back? they asked. This is not an unreasonable concern, though I doubt any of these commentators would go so far as to approve of foreign parents taking children out of Japan to escape an abusive Japanese spouse.

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Nov 17, 2009

Changes must go beyond Hague abduction treaty

First in a two-part series

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Oct 20, 2009

Signing Hague treaty no cure-all for parental abduction scourge

The recent arrest of Christopher Savoie for attempting to "kidnap" his two children in Fukuoka has brought much-needed international media attention to one of Japan's dirty secrets — its status as the developed world's leading destination for international parental child abduction.

COMMUNITY

Oct 20, 2009

Foreign parents face travel curbs?

I think it is safe to say that the countdown has begun — the countdown to it becoming more difficult for you to leave Japan with your children. Difficult, that is, if you are non-Japanese and traveling without their other parent (or his or her written consent).

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Aug 26, 2009

How bureaucrats spell logic in Romanized Japanese

Tomorrow I will go to Sinzyuku to meet my old friends Mr. Tutida and Ms. Oisi. We will get some susi and then end up in Kabuki-tyo, drinking syoutyū until the syūden.

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Apr 21, 2009

Japan's many roads to ruin

While there are many roads to democracy and prosperity, in Japan it is roads that may take the country in a different direction. In their latest book on construction in Japan, "Doro o do suru ka" ("What to do about the roads?"), lawyer Takayoshi Igarashi and journalist Akio Ogawa paint a bleak picture of how the "road tribes" — the impenetrable scrum of bureaucrats, politicians and industry that benefit from an ever-expanding program of road construction — are literally paving the road to national ruin.

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Mar 10, 2009

Big winners in 'jury' system may be judges, bureaucrats

With notices having already gone out to the randomly selected citizens who may have to serve as lay judges (saibanin) in serious criminal trials starting later this year, authorities are concerned that yakuza gangsters may end up being chosen. Oh well, at least they made sure to exclude law professors.

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Jan 13, 2009

Bloated bureaucracy exposed

A common joke among some foreigners here is that everything makes sense once you realize Japan is a communist country. However, the role of privileged ruling Communist Party (or, if you have a literary bent, the pigs in George Orwell's socialist parable "Animal Farm") is played not by the perpetual opposition party of that name, but by the country's bureaucrats. For this reason, Japanese government policies that may at first seem crazy often make sense if you ask the question, "What do the bureaucrats get out of it?"

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Jul 15, 2008

Human rights — strictly personal, strictly Japanese?

Go figure. Just a few weeks after I wrote about how Japanese courts try to avoid doing anything dramatic, on June 4 the Supreme Court ruled that a section of the Nationality Law was unconstitutional. Such rulings being so rare, I steeled myself for a big helping of highfalutin' Japanese legalese and read the opinion (which is available on the Supreme Court Web site).

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Jun 3, 2008

Hard work begins once Japan signs child-abduction treaty

If my own mailbox is any indicator, the Internet is buzzing as international family lawyers, family rights activists and others share an exciting piece of news: Japan is reportedly planning to join the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction! Perhaps Japan's days as a haven for international parental child abduction are numbered. Perhaps Japanese courts will stop giving the judicial seal of approval to one parent's selfish desire to erase the other from a child's life. Fingers crossed.

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Apr 29, 2008

Judiciary's 'snake legs' exposed

On April 17 the Nagoya High Court ruled that the dispatch of Air Self-Defense Force personnel to Iraq was unconstitutional. While the ruling made news, it will probably not make much difference to Japan's foreign policy. Its significance may be nothing more than academic — after all, despite the headlines the government won.

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Jan 29, 2008

Law schools come under friendly fire

With its first crop of graduates just entering the legal profession, Japan's new law school system is in trouble. The schools, most of which opened their doors in 2004, are already struggling with the mismatch between the number of law students, which is unregulated, and the number of people who are allowed to pass the bar exam, which is set by the government at an artificially low number. As a result, the most recent pass rate was about 40 percent, a figure that will continue to drop as more graduates and repeat takers compete for a fixed number of slots — an unattractive situation for both existing and prospective students alike. More recently, the system has come under fire from a new quarter: Justice Minister (and former Minister of Education) Kunio Hatoyama and a number of regional bar associations.

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Sep 5, 2006

Grim bar system may hurt legal reforms

Sept. 21 is awaited with a mixture of anticipation and dread in campuses across Japan. It is the date on which results of the country's first new bar examination are announced. How well a school's students do on this test, which is projected to have a pass rate of about 40 percent, may have a serious impact on the success of institutions entirely new to Japan -- graduate professional law schools. Around the country 74 of these now exist (with over 5,000 students), compared to none three years ago.

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