TN vs. Japan

[Dorkandproudofit]

International law can be a mite tricky--especially when, after winning a custody case for his children when his Japanese wife took them and fled to Japan to escape police on kidnapping charges, the father of the children is himself jailed in Japan.

And he can't go home. Or get custody. Which he won.

source: CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/30/japan.savoie.children/index.html?iref=topnews)

[Narradisall]

I actually have a hard time siding with either of them here.

Going to sound childish here, but he 'started' things by getting a restraining order against her taken them to Japan. i understand his concern, but as it is her country of origin its not impossible that she may want to return their to live and have her children visit to learn about their 'other' home country.

She was faced with either living in the US (which she may have not wanted to) or being cut off from her children completely because of her husbands fears. She could have been planning it all along, but his solution to apply for a restraining order probably made her make the panic choice to run with them.

Understandably getting them back via legal means might not work or take forever, so he tries to steal them back?

Really hard to sympathse with the father or the mother in this case.

He can't go home 'because he comitted a crime in the country', he has custody in the US, but liek they say this means little in Japan, and he won custody 'in the US' which there is little info to say the reasoning as to why he won. Couldn't he have applied for custody in Japan?

[Shieldmaiden]

Going to sound childish here, but he 'started' things by getting a restraining order against her taken them to Japan. i understand his concern, but as it is her country of origin its not impossible that she may want to return their to live and have her children visit to learn about their 'other' home country.


No. He did not "start things" by getting a restraining order. She threatened to take his children away, he responded in an appropriate legal manner which, given what has ocurred, was clearly justified.

Obviously I don't know the people or their situation, she may have had genuine reasons for doing what she did, but assuming that there was no reason for her to snatch the kids, beyond her problems with her ex, I can't see how anyone could fault him for what he did.

It sounds like a messy legal tangle, though. There are clearly huge differences between the two legal systems which will take a lot of sorting. What sticks out to me is that the Japanese authorities are saying that, as far as they're concerned, the couple are still married, but they still arrested him for taking the kids. In the UK, as long as there are no court-ordered custody arrangements in place, both parents have full and equal access to the children.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I'm not making any judgements about the situation. He could have been threatening something similar and she did what she did out of fear. I just reject the notion that, based on the information given, he was wrong in going for a restraining order.

[Narradisall]

Jonno,

I am probably missing something really obvious here, but where did she say she was threatening to take the children away prior to the restraining order?

I read the events as such After their Tennessee divorce, Noriko Savoie agreed to live in Franklin, Tennessee, to be close to the children, taking them to Japan for summer vacations.

In March, Savoie requested a restraining order to prevent her from taking the children to Japan, fearing she would not return. which makes it sound like she was making all the sacrifices to be close to the kids and then he wacked her with a restraining order.

I dug into some of the links in the main news article, but couldn't find it. Either that or my reading comprehension sucks.

[Shieldmaiden]

From the main article:

n March, Savoie requested a restraining order to prevent her from taking the children to Japan, fearing she would not return.

"I was on a speaker phone telephone call once when she proclaimed to him, 'You have no idea what I'm capable of," said Amy Savoie. "So, yes, he had the idea.

[Narradisall]

Ahhhh, see I read that as happening after he'd applied for the order, not before.

To be honest I could understand that reaction if she'd just got an order saying she wouldn't be able to take her kids back to Japan for summer. It's not overly clear in the comment.

[Shieldmaiden]

It's not very clear, is it? You're right, it could go either way. I'm interested in how this works out.

[Narradisall]

It's not very clear, is it? You're right, it could go either way. I'm interested in how this works out.

Japan has Godzilla, what does Tennessee have? Face it, they gunna lose to Imperial might! ;)

[Dorkandproudofit]

Japan has Godzilla, what does Tennessee have? Face it, they gunna lose to Imperial might! ;)

We have Peyton Manning... or, at least, we did. :(

[cppcrusader]

Japan has Godzilla, what does Tennessee have? Face it, they gunna lose to Imperial might! ;)

Davy Crockett. He could grin down Godzilla.

And now that song will be in my head the rest of the day.

[Dorkandproudofit]

Something tells me we need the perspective of a legal expert.

Someone activate the Ox-Signal!

[KamaItachi]

This is not uncommon and not just limited to Japan. Getting children back from any country if they've been taken by a parent, custodial or not, can be a nightmare.

[Generation ABXY]

Someone activate the Ox-Signal!

Word has it he's retired his cape and cowl. Still, I'm hoping for some The Dark Knight Returns...um, return.

[Narradisall]

Word has it he's retired his cape and cowl. Still, I'm hoping for some The Dark Knight Returns...um, return.

What happened? Did he do a 'christian bale' or attack a table?