Child Investigation Services
by Japan PI
Child Custody Dispute in Japan
We understand the predicament of a child raised by a parent without the ability to provide an adequate home environment for children, especially in the international child custody dispute. During the period of divorce or separation in the international dispute, children will get involved in more significant negative stress than in the domestic disputes.
In some cases, a parent takes advantage of children to raise child support from the other. In other cases, a parent simply takes away children to revenge the other party.
Needless to say, the best interest of children is always our priority, and our compassionate and skilled bilingual investigators will work with the client and their attorney to solve the dispute over child custody.
No Joint Custody in Japan
Joint custody is non-existing by law in Japan’s laws
- Japanese family courts will give custody to the mothers automatically. It is not common for parents without custody to have visitation rights. This practice has been the source of international criticism for decades.
Type of Cases
- International Custody Dispute
- International Visitation Rights
- Domestic Custody Dispute
- Domestic Visitation Rights
- Child Investigation (Locate or Monitor Without Dispute)
If it’s an international case, you can get a legal support (ADR) from the Japanese MOFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). We can refer a bilingual attorney if you need legal assistance in Japan. Please refer The Hague Convention (Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction).
If it is a domestic case, there is no legal support from the Japanese government. You must solve this issue at your cost.
How We Can Help
Whether you are a concerned parent or an attorney we can provide you with expert, quality services. We sincerely hope to cooperate to ensure your children’s quality of life and your peace of mind.
- Locate children who are taken away
- Background investigation on the subject (parent), their family members or cohabitants
- Surveillance to verify if the child is abused or neglected, if there are signs of alcohol or drug abuse, etc.
- On-Site Investigation to assess the raising environment or to confirm the health and safety of the children
A Child of a Divorced Couple
A child is listed on his or her parent’s Koseki until they create their own. This typically happens when they get married. But in case of a divorce, the child will move to the person with Shinken (legal custody.) In case of a non-Japanese getting full custody in Japan, you should break your child off of the Japanese parent’s Family Registration and onto his or her own. (You probably need both Shinken and Kangoken types of child custody.)
This is not a complete solution to a future abduction by the Japanese parent, but it will make it more difficult, since it will be clearly obvious that the Japanese parent does not have custody. It will take an additional legal procedure to move the child back. So it is one more obstacle and a good precautionary and preventative measure.
Records of civil actions pertaining to non-Japanese citizens, such as marriage, adoption, divorce or death are available from the Municipal Office where the action was registered, in the same manner as the birth record of a non-Japanese citizen. Marriage and adoption records are maintained for 50 years. Divorce and death records are kept for 10 years.
FAQ’s on Child Investigations
- Where to file a Hague Application for child abduction?
If you are US citizen, below is the contact information:
Travel.State.Gov. File a Hague Application of Child Abduction.
You can have legal aid from the Japanese government.
Legal Aid for the Hague Convention in Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan
Goro-san assisted me in a long complex operation over a period of 2 years which led to the successful retrieval of my child after an unlawful abduction to Japan. He did not ask me to write a reference for him., Rather, I decided to, on my own. It’s important to me that parents of abducted children can have an expert professional to aid them.
I can not speak highly enough of him. Every aspect of working with him was excellent. I would particularly highlight the following:
1. First of all, he is highly competent at what I hired him for, which was surveillance. There was not a single day where he lost the target. he also was never spotted once. and we must have done nearly 100 days of surveillance over 2 years. In terms of his abilities, I was stunned that he got perfect pictures of my child’s phone screen as she was using it, allowing me to read that she was in immediate danger. . Even when I approached my own child, and the child first ran away, he appeared out of nowhere and quickly photographed the situation to protect me. He is simply excellent at his job.
2. Secondly he is well versed in the law, including the Hague Treaty on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction, as well as domestic criminal and family law. Of course not to the extent a lawyer may be knowledgeable, but far beyond what I had expected. He clearly does his homework and his legal knowledge helped to make decisions on the steps I took.
3. Thirdly he was very intellectually engaged. He followed the legal case in great detail, and closely communicated with my excellent lawyer. He also read and understood the child counseling reports from a foreign jurisdiction. He genuinely cared about the abducted child and the outcome of the case.
4. Goro-san also has the strength to stand up and create firm red-lines that I couldn’t cross. He did not want me to make a mistake or get into trouble. He knew exactly how to manage me despite the emotional turmoil. He even told me he would stop working with me if I did something he couldn’t agree with, but he was also flexible to allow me to do some things that he was not 100% comfortable with. This ability to manage the client is crucial to success and he was brilliant at managing me and my expectations and our disagreements.
Goro-san is simply brilliant and I couldn’t have recovered my child or even found her without him, nor would I have known that she was close to suicide. I think Goro-san was instrumental in saving my child’s life. If your needs are related to child abduction, then I can only say that he is brilliant. I am happy to talk one on one to any left behind parent who wishes to get a reference and Goro-san can make the introduction after some due diligence. Thank you for saving my child Goro-san. You’re a true professional and I will never forget what you did for me, and for my child.