American Jailed in Japan, Charged with Parental Kidnapping

Michael Hassett reported that: “There is a 21.1-percent likelihood that a man who marries a Japanese national will do the following: create at least one child with his spouse (85.2 percent probability), then divorce within the first 20 years of marriage (31 percent), and subsequently lose custody of any children (80 percent). And in a country such as Japan — one that has no visitation rights and neither statutes nor judicial precedents providing for joint custody — loss of custody often translates into complete loss of contact, depending on the desire of the mother.Well, it looks like American Christopher Savoie, who has been jailed for trying to regain custody of his children in Japan, may drive Hassett's point home. The Japanese police charged Savoie with the abduction of minors -- a charge that carries a jail sentence of up to five years. The International Association for Parent-Child Reunion, formed in Japan this year, claims to know of more than 100 cases of children abducted by non-custodial Japanese parents. Japanese family law follows a tradition of sole custody divorces. When a couple splits, one parent typically makes a complete and lifelong break from the children. Click here for the rest of the story!Click here for previous BT articles on parental kidnapping in Japan. Check out another video on the Savoie case here.[ad#468x60-ad]