First in a two-part series
Christopher Savoie's recent arrest for "kidnapping" his own children in Fukuoka after they had been brought to Japan by his ex-wife generated not only much-needed media attention on Japan's abduction problem, but some unhelpful static as well. For example, some non-Japanese have claimed that Mr. Savoie's arrest reflects some sort of racism on the part of the Japanese police, though Japanese fathers have been arrested for doing basically the same thing. From the Japanese side there have been allegations that he "tricked" his former wife to the U.S., as well as nonsense about him being a bigamist because he remarried without registering his divorce in Japan.
Commentators on both sides have tended to converge, however, on one notion — that the Savoie case is somehow related to Japan not being a party to the Hague Convention on international child abduction. This notion is probably mistaken, as I will try to explain.