In approximately 80% of divorce and paternity cases in Japan, the father loses all parental rights, excluding the “right” to pay child support. In the remainder of cases, it is the mother who is stripped of her parental rights.

Visitation? That’s not a concept that is part of Japanese family law.

When parents break up, the “other parent” fades out of their children’s lives. Another family member may even adopt their children without their consent.

How does a parent win custody in Japan?

One alleged way to get a leg up on a custody award in Japan is to abscond with the child, even across international boundaries.

Statistics suggest that some 10,000 children in Japan have no access to their foreign parent.

Japan is a not yet a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Although there are rumors that it will adopt the convention in a couple of more years, one has to wonder whether it will really matter.

Japanese family law is in need of a paradigm shift. Without that, change may be a pipe dream.

Japan did sign the Convention of New York, the purpose of which was to assure children access to both parents. It didn’t.

Family law activists in Japan are lobbying for a long overdue overhaul of the Japanese family law.

Read more in this Singapore Straits Times article: Over 160,000 Japanese children split from one parents every year.

And, according to him, the rumors started. He abandoned them, leaving them with nothing, and so on.

Rightly or wrongly, he believes he has been maligned, criticized, scorned … speculated about.

Yet he believes the settlement was generous, and resents the whispers behind his back.

So, while most wealthy folks going through divorces are more likely to be looking to seal their court files from public scrutiny, this man decided to strike back in a very public way.

He launched a website intended to set the record straight about his divorce.

On the site, he purports to disclose the terms of his divorce settlement.

He hopes it will quell the wild rumors.

Time will tell.

Read more in this UK Independent article: Businessman puts divorce deal on web to stop ‘rumour mill’ and this [India] Economic Times article: Millionaire posts divorce details on net to stop rumours.

Join this discussion.

Maybe you’d like to start over with a new condo or house. You find the perfect place.

You begin working with a mortgage broker. In the course of your chit-chat, you mention you were just divorced.

Don’t be surprised when your mortgage broker asks you for a copy of your … final judgment of dissolution (also known as divorce decree).

How come?

1. If you are receiving alimony and / or child support, you may be relying on those payments to fund your new mortgage payments. And your lender may have to rely on your ex to make those support payments for you to keep your new mortgage loan current. Your lender will likely need to see proof of your ex’s legal obligation to pay, the mechanism by which he or she pays (direct payment or wage garnishment, for example) and your ex’s payment history.
2. And if you are paying alimony and / or child support, a portion of your income is spoken for and unavailable to make your new mortgage payments. The same is true if your ex is still in your old house with your kids and your name is still on that mortgage, especially if you are obligated, under your decree or because you co-signed, to continue making payments on that existing mortgage. Your lender will likely want proof of exactly how much of your income is yours to apply toward new your mortgage payments and what existing mortgage payments you are (potentially) liable for.

Read more in this WalletPop article: Mortgage Confidential: Why lenders want to see your divorce decree.

Join this discussion.

Husband and Wife marry. Husband sponsors Wife for a green card.

Marriage breaks down.

Husband asks for postnuptial agreement. His apparent intention was that it serve as a divorce settlement.

Proposed agreement reportedly removed custody of any future child of theirs from Wife.

Wife refused to sign agreement. Husband threw Wife out of house.

Then took her back. And so on.

Child was born. Divorce began.

Wife was awarded primary residential custody of Child. Until the day Homeland Security showed up and instructed her to turn Child over to Husband despite the Court’s order.

Husband apparently put Homeland Security onto Wife, claiming to have learned of her illegal status only after the marriage.

Wife was detained for some time and threatened with deportation. Wife was eventually freed, due to Husband’s history of domestic violence.

But when Wife returned to their home, Husband and Child had vanished. Husband claimed to be in Panama with Child.

Wife had never consented to issuance of a passport to Child, so Husband’s story seemed questionable.

Wife obtained court orders requiring Husband to return Child to her custody. To no avail.

About nine months later, Wife got word that Child, now almost 2 years old, had died of pneumonia in Panama.

There were some seeming irregularities in Husband’s and the attending physician’s accounts of how Child died and the circumstances leading up to Child’s death. Wife believes Husband was negligent in caring for Child.

Wife plans to sue Husband over Child’s death. And hopes that he is prosecuted for passport fraud and parental kidnapping.

But none of that will bring Child back …

Read more in this NBC6 TV article: S. Fla. Mother Wants Answers To Baby’s Death In Panama.

The reason? They are feeling the pinch of the credit crunch and generally weak economy.

In New York State, the situation has fueled the biggest spike in divorce filings in nearly thirty years. The last such spike resulted from the introduction of additional grounds into New York’s fault-based divorce scheme.

Folks in NYC’s sometimes high-flying financial sector have gone from multimillion dollar bonuses to … no bonuses at all this year. Life changing.

And marriage changing - challenging.

No longer flush with cash for the distraction of grandiose entertainment, wealthy couples are reduced to … fighting.

Marriages of the wealthy reportedly are not so much inspired by romance as those of other economic statuses. So, when the applicable inspiration diminishes, it’s off to divorce court - in droves.

So anyone seeking a divorce now should find themselves in really good company …

Read more in this [UK] Times article: Credit crunch raises divorce rate for America’s superwealthy.

Join this discussion.