Japan does not recognize joint-custody?

It’s disturbing that Japanese people who are married to foreigners can actually hijack their kids away from their foreigner partners and GET away with it.

I don’t see the poor child has to suffer the loss of a parents just because the adults can’t keep their act together. Sigh, some sort of policies should be endorsed to protect foreigners who are married to Japanese citizens, at least acknowledge some rights in the procreation of the child. A baby is not born with just the egg or the sperm.

This story sort of reminds me of a scene in Meet the Parents when Gaylord “Greg” Focker was taken out of his flight for saying bomb, the conversation went like this:

Security: You were acting like a manic and you threatened her with a bomb.
Greg: No, I said I didn’t have a bomb.
Security: But you said bomb.
Greg: I said, “It’s not like I have a bomb”.
Security: You said “Bomb” on an airplane.
Greg: What’s wrong with saying ‘Bomb’ on an airplane?
Security: You can’t say ‘Bomb’ on an airplane!
Greg: Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb. You gonna arrest me? Bomb bomb bomb bomb! During the war I was a BOMBadier!

ROFL

Man arrested after ‘joking’ with flight attendant he had stick of dynamite on plane in Hokkaido

CHITOSE, Hokkaido — A man has been arrested for telling a cabin attendant that he possessed a stick of dynamite on a plane, causing the flight to be delayed by three hours, police said.

Takanari Deto, 69, a real estate company owner of Chuo-ku, Sapporo, stands accused of forcible obstruction of business.

He admitted to the allegations. “I did it as a joke,” he was quoted as telling investigators during questioning.

The incident occurred at around 1:50 p.m. on Tuesday when the aircraft was parked at New Chitose Airport waiting for departure, local police said.

Deto told a cabin attendant on Hokkaido International Airlines (Air Do) Flight 20 bound for Haneda Airport in Tokyo that he had a stick of dynamite as he was placing a paper bag into an overhead compartment, according to investigators.

All of the 214 passengers and crewmembers were evacuated and police officers searched the cabin but found no explosive.

The flight departed for Tokyo three hours behind schedule.

Source

This featured story of a foreigner who got locked up in Japan’s prison for a scuffle in the bars. He was in it for 3 weeks and it was enough to know how tough the justice system in Japan is.

Metropolis has his story covered on their website.

Here’s a little caption of the story to get your curiosity flowing:

Day 1: Blood and Processing

After 17 hours of interrogation, I had an arrest warrant slapped down on the dirty table in front of me, as if the cop was happy to finally have found his serial killer.

The warrant said “for not cooperating with the police and hitting a man with a bottle.” I was definitely guilty of not cooperating with the police, but as the obviously far-from-meticulous detective team would later find out by video, not guilty of hitting some guy with a bottle. My attack on the “victim” had been fired by his drunken physical taunts and led to injuries mimicking those of a bottle to the brow. He himself was so drunk and shaken up that he said he wasn’t sure what happened.

The room, now packed with eight police of varying rank and each sporting different attire, heated up when the lead detective walked in to ask about my now deformed hand. The metacarpal had snapped on the third punch to the Goliath-sized “victim” I had taken down. It was now swollen and becoming near vestigial.

Hey it’s not a pleasant thing to write but someone has to do it. What if someone you know or you got arrested by the police in Japan? Here are some things you will need to expect if you’re arrested.

First off, if you did something that got your arrested, you deserve it, no? But i am sure there are some cases where mistakes do happen. Do know that you will have 1 phone call you can make to the outside world. While it may not get your out of jail instantly, it will do you good if you call someone who can speed up the process (if your offense is a minor one, i.e. not paying your traffic tickets for YEARS). Do understand that in Japan, it’s unlike the US where you are innocent until proven guilty. Most likely they will haul you in first before proving you innocent. So beware.

In Japan, the police is allowed to detain you for up to 72 hours in which case, if need be, they can extend it to 20 days from the approval of a judge in the court of law. Ouch. Let me just say that jail food ain’t so good.

If you require more detailed information about legal rights and legal counsel, go to KUYAKUSHO or the local ward office for free and thorough information. If you don’t speak good Japanese, it’d be useful to haul a few Japanese friends with you.

Or if you have question you can check out Gaijinpot’s Legal Forum for more info.