Immigrant getting custody

For example, we'll say an American woman is in Japan on a working visa. She gets married to a Japanese man. They have a child. After a few years, they get divorced. Does custody automatically go to the Japanese man, because he is a citizen?

I've heard that if you get divorced this way, it would be nearly impossible for the American woman in this situation to get custody of her child and bring her back to the US. It would even be difficult for her to get visitation rights.

I'm not trying to be offensive or anything, I was just wondering if there was any truth to this. Thanks in advance.

Short answer is yes.
There are too many horror stories that support what you are saying but usually it's a Japanese wife. At the time people get married and having children deviorce is the last thing on their minds so preparing for the worst isn't something they do. When and if things go bad the law and courts are on the Japanese nationals side and that's that.

It can happen, but for the most part custody in Japan favors the mother. Information on this is not hard to find. You can check out the US State Department's website or use Google to search for: divorcing a Japanese national/man. There is also a useful website called international-divorce.com.

What if the foreigner in this situation was a Japanese citizen?

Do you mean what would happen if the couple were of mixed nationality living in either the non-Japanese spouse's country or in a third country?

What I meant was that if the couple of mixed nationality were both Japanese citizens. If say, the father in the situation was born and raised in Japan, so he is Japanese national, while the mother in the situation was not Japanese, but had a Japanese citizenship(vs. a visa). Would that make a difference?

Sorry for the confusion!

Whether or not the immigrant spouse had citizenship would be largely irrelevant with regards to custody. However, I would recommend that the spouse get permanent residence to secure the right to live in Japan independently of a spouse visa, citizenship is not necessary.