Rights to children after divorce

Hi everyone. I was married a japanese guy in Japan. And the most imortant question is about future children and divorce.

I hear that in case of divorce japanese husband can take them away and don't allow you even to see them. It's insane. So I know children will be the preciest for me. What can I do to have all rights to take children?
1. Get them born in my coutry (not japan)?
2. Is there some documents in japan or contract where I can point out that I have all rights on children?

It is actually a big subject in Japan in recent years. I would use google to find your answers. Lots of info and new articles about the subject.

You haven't had the children yet but you're thinking about what to do in the event of divorce??

Custody in Japan seems like a really complicated issue and as with most things I think foreigners usually end up getting the short end of the stick.

I don�ft know the ins and outs of it all but if I was pregnant with a child from a Japanese man i had separated from and I had real concerns about custody, I would be on the first plane home to my country. Sticking around to find out? No thank you.

It is actually a big subject in Japan in recent years.
Really? As far as I know, in most of the divorce cases, the court gives custody to mother even if she can't even make enough to raise them and this tendency can be a problem.

That's usually when the mother is Japanese....but this is not the case....

About the second question of the guy that said that I already think about divorse .
I don't want to divorse but Life is big and noone know future in relationships... Some people posted some cases where they already had children and divorsed and Japanese husband or wife wants to take children away. So they didn't think about it in advance.


So still the question is:
1) if i will get born baby in my country (not Japan) and then come back to Japan. Does it help me to have all rights on my child?
Or 2) Can we make contract in Japan and point out that I will have full rights after divorce?

@...guest

Yes really. Lots of dads returning to Japan with the kids after separation ignoring family court orders from other countries. Huge political issue, hence why I wasn't really going into details, and the suggestion of doing ones own research. I'll guess that the following that I type will get this thread deleted due to the strong political nature of the conversation information.

Even though Japan has signed the Hague treaty on international issue regards child abduction etc. Japanese will always look after Japanese first. The Hague treaty isn't worth the paper is written on.

As for the OP and her continued line of questioning. All this info and more is an easy google search away. In regards to the above statement. Having a child in your home country means nothing. If a Japanese father has the passport and runs back to Japan, it would be very difficult to see or get your children returned.

Again, google it. so much info out there to read if you wanna actually do some homework yourself.

when a foreigner married a Japanese the Japanese law will be used in court, no matter where the children are born. If your children are born outside Japan than you need to apply duo citizenship, or give only one citizenship. In Japan the woman is the carrier and the person who gave child and is entitled to have the children over the father, even if you are foreigner. Unless the mother violence etc.

I read to many maybe, if etc. in the posts.
It is better to find out what is best to ask a lawyer or someone who has expertise in this matter.
And of course talk with your husband.

Anyway it is always good to consider about your children future.

In my case if I divorce my child will go to the mother, but we have a contract saying that I still can see the child after divorce. I had also would like to keep seeing me child.

what is the meaning of "all rights on my child" ?
if you have "all rights", you mean your ex-spouse has "no right" ?
I think both have rights and responsibilities.

@hakata14
Ah, yes, I've heard of the very opposite cases about foreigners returning to their home after divorce. Do your research if you doubt.
It's not Japanese dad kind of thing.

In Japanese ;)

haha search using my poor Japanese language skills? I don't think so. ;)

Of course it happens both ways. I don't doubt it, I'm aware it happens. But I only made reference to the info that was relevant to the OP situation. Which is why I only mention Japanese dad.

https://japantoday.com/category/national/Foreign-divorced-parents-figh...

I am suspicious that those foreigners don't pay any money for support their children.

"Joint custody" is not (or at least has not been) common in Japan. So if a couple gets divorced, either the mother or the father takes full custody, and the other parent might pay child support but likely not see the child again. If the child is very young, the mother tends to get the custody (due to the common belief that small kids simply need their mother) unless there are some special circumstances. In other cases the party at fault usually loses custody (such as the father having an extramarital affair, etc.).

This "one parent gets full custody" concept has been the norm. (So it is not that "Japanese husband" takes away the child or anything.) However in recent years the idea that children should be able to see both their parents, even after the marriage has ended, came into attention.

If children are so important that you start thinking about this issue even now, when you don't have any children I would discuss that upfront with your spouse and get that in official writing (to be left in the care of an attorney just in case for the future).

But
1. That would not help, because if one parent is Japanese, the child can have Japanese nationality, no matter where he/she is born.
2. If you want to do a pre-nup agreement (pre-child agreement) with your spouse, that would be up to you and to your spouse.

And by the way, among Japanese-Japanese couples, there are a whole bunch of cases where the mom took custody and the dad agreed to pay child support but fails to do so after a while. In Japan there is no way to "enforce" the child support agreement if someone decides to neglect it. Nothing Japanese vs. non-Japanese about it.