As Japan introduces joint custody, some couples find it easier to part ways. But the reform sparks debate over whether children's interests are truly central in a system still led by parents.
https://p.dw.com/p/5GObzJoint custody for children in divorce was just introduced in Japan in AprilImage: Issei Kato/REUTERSAdvertisement"After five years of separation, the law change finally gave us a push for a divorce," Mariya Yamada, a 46-year-old Japanese television personality and actress, told DW in late June, showing her completed divorce certificate with a fresh smile.
"I will submit this paper next week — with the custody box checked for both my husband and myself — and it's all done," she said.
Soon after, the mother of a 13-year-old son announced the completion of her divorce from her actor husband, following Japan's introduction of joint custody for divorced parents in April.
The popular couple's timely divorce drew widespread attention in Japanese media, including major television networks and sports newspapers.
"My husband kept saying that he didn't want to lose custody of our son," Yamada said, "but now he can finally accept the divorce."
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Prior to the new legislation, Japan was the only G7 country that granted custody to only one parent after divorce.
Under the revised Civil Code, parents with joint custody are required to discuss decisions that could have a significant impact on their child's life, such as where the child lives and which school they attend.
When parents cannot agree on their own, the family court determines custody based on the child's best interests.
The law also allows parents who divorced before the reform came into effect to apply to the court to convert an existing sole custody arrangement into joint custody.
In the case of domestic violence or abuse, the court will grant sole custody to one parent.
In Japan, where around 90% of divorces are settled by mutual agreement without court intervention and only sole custody had been recognized before April, the interests of children after their parents' divorce have often taken a back seat.
A 26-year-old woman working in Tokyo, whose parents divorced when she and her younger sister were in elementary school, reflected that she struggled to understand when her father was granted sole custody due to adult priorities, such as financial stability, even though both kids "felt much more attached to mother."
"I always wished I could have lived with my mother," she told DW. "Whenever I had to fill out official documents, I could only write father's name as my parent."
She felt a gap between the legal arrangement and everyday life, as her mother continued to take care of them after the divorce, including frequent dinners at her mother's house. She vividly remembers her younger sister crying when she had to part from their mother.
"Looking back, I wish joint custody had been allowed then," she said. "If children are old enough to have their opinions, adults shouldn't make these decisions on their own. They should listen to what children want, too."
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Shinji Nozawa, professor at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, who specializes in family sociology and stepfamily research, pointed out that children often lose contact not only with one parent after divorce, but also with that parent's side of the family.
"In most cases, they can no longer see their grandparents either," he said. "For a child, losing half of the network of people who loved and cared for them is a big problem."
Nozawa said he understands that some single parents, most of whom are single mothers in Japan, find it stressful to remain involved with a former partner.
"But that often goes against the best interests of the child. In Japan, the discussion has not reached there yet," added Nozawa.
The number of consultation cases about post-divorce custody has been "on the rise" since joint custody was introduced, Seiya Sato, an attorney specializing in Japanese family law at Setagaya International Law Office in Tokyo, told DW.
He now receives five to ten inquiries a week, including international divorces. Many of his clients are fathers from the US or Europe married to Japanese women. They are shocked that under the Japanese system, only one parent can obtain custody while the other is left with little or no contact with the child, sometimes only being allowed to see them once a month.
As international marriages and divorces have become common in Japan, the country's peculiar stance on parental responsibility has increasingly come under criticism. In 2020, the European Parliament warned that there was a significant number of unsolved parental child abduction cases where one of the parents is an EU national, and the other is a Japanese national.
It called on the Japanese authorities to introduce the possibility of shared or joint custody, mentioning that Japan in 2014 acceded to the Hague Convention.
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The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly recommended that Japan improve its implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the country ratified in 1994.
Taking a child away from the other parent is regarded as a crime in countries such as the US, while in Japan, its unique legal and social principles have resulted in those involved often not seeing their actions as criminal, allowing the problem to persist, according to Nozawa.
"Introduction of joint custody is a step forward, but the system still leaves the decision largely in the hands of parents," he said.
Nearly 90% of single-parent households are headed by mothers, and it is common for them to shoulder the burden of raising their children alone.
Tomoko Taguchi, a 47-year-old single mother who has raised her three children since divorcing her ex-husband seven years ago, remains skeptical about the new joint custody system. She said that it could blur parental responsibilities, including the obligation to pay child support.
"It could end up with ex-partners giving opinions about children but not financial support," she told DW. "Someone who doesn't share the day-to-day parental responsibilities shouldn't be able to simply interfere in major decisions."
Having shouldered most of the childcare even before the divorce, Taguchi works almost every day — juggling part-time jobs in office work and at a pizza delivery chain with only about one day off each month — to support the household and pay for her children's education.
Her former husband only pays about 100,000 yen (€540, $615) a month in child support.
One of the biggest problems of Japan's system, Nozawa argued, is "the lack of a mechanism for courts to actively intervene and ensure arrangements that are in the best interests of the child."
