Ten European diplomats expressed support on Friday for a Frenchman who has been on hunger strike for three weeks during the Tokyo Olympics to protest against what he calls the legally sanctioned abduction of his two children by his Japanese wife.
The European Union ambassadors to Japan met with Vincent Fichot, 39, who is camped out at a train station near the National Stadium, a focus of the ongoing Games, where temperatures regularly top 30 degrees Celsius amid sweltering humidity.
Fichot's dramatic protest aims to draw attention to the plight of parents like him who are denied custody or visitation of their children in a divorce. Japan, unlike most countries, does not recognize joint custody and children often lose contact with the noncustodial parent.