International Child Abduction in Japan - Specific Cases

Specific Cases

The following is a list of cases of international parental abduction in and to Japan. Some cases involve a divorce suit filed in Japan and therefore do not involve the violation of custodial arrangements made in a foreign court or international parental abduction. Some are denial of visitation, which as stated by the US Department of Justice is considered Parental Abduction.

• Patrick Braden – Braden and Ryoko Uchiyama had a relationship but were never married; from that relationship came Melissa Hinako Braden. According to Braden, Uchiyama had been estranged from her family, due to a number of issues including her allegation that her father sexually molested her. After the girl's birth, Uchiyama renewed contact with her family. Wishing to mend that relationship, she made clear her desire to return to Japan. In response, Braden filed for joint custody of Melissa, which was granted by a Los Angeles court. Ten days after the court's decision, Uchiyama left with Melissa for Japan, and obtained a restraining order upon arrival. Braden successfully sued Uchiyama's attorney for malpractice, claiming that the attorney knew Uchiyama’s plan in advance, but his suit against ANA Airlines for allowing her to travel was not successful. He has not seen his daughter since 2006, and continues efforts to see her but after several years says he is not optimistic.

• Yamila Castellanos – Her Japanese husband abducted their two-year-old daughter from Cuba to Japan. Allegedly, he forged Castellanos’ signature to obtain a divorce. He has denied Castellanos any access to their child, even though she holds legal custody in Cuba. She has been fighting in Japanese court without any results. In 2005 she was denied the visa extension needed to stay in Japan.

• Shane Clarke — In 2008, the wife of Briton Shane Clarke abducted their two daughters on the pretense of making a trip to Japan with them to see her ill grandmother. When Clarke next saw his wife in Japan, she informed him that would seek custody in proceedings in Japan. He is now convinced that he will never see his children again.

• Steve Christie – He claims his son was living with him in Japan and that his wife abducted their child and has denied him access. He co-founded the International Association for Parent and Child Reunion in 2009.

• Michael Gulbraa – In 1996, Michael Gulbraa and Etsuko Tanizaki divorced in Utah, and custody was awarded to Tanizaki, who remarried. Gulbraa alleged that his ex-wife's new husband physically abused their children, which was later found to be unfounded. Tanizaki and her new family then moved to Japan despite warnings to not leave the country. Gulbraa subsequently sued for custody. Because Tanizaki did not appear in Utah for court, Gulbraa won the case by default in 2002, and was awarded custody of his two sons, but as the children were in Japan, the ruling could not be enforced. The case is further complicated by the fact that Etuko Tanizaki and her new husband are devout members of LDS church while Michael Gulbraa is no longer a member. Gulbraa sued the LDS church, claiming that church officials instructed other church members not to give him information about his children and that LDS church ordained the children against the express wish of the custodial parent. This suit failed in court. In 2006, the youngest son, who says he did not want to be ordained, traveled on his own to the U.S. Consulate in Osaka, and via Tokyo returned to the United States.

• Alan Kaneda – In 2003, Alan Kaneda and Chiharu Wakao divorced in Hawaii where the state judge ordered a joint custody agreement for their daughter Marina. After more than a year of both parties abiding by the agreement, Wakao moved to Japan without informing her ex-husband. From the safety of Japan she alleges that he was abusive to their daughter, an allegation that was not made while she resided in Hawaii. She has since been indicted on a charge of first-degree custodial interference, a felony.

• Engle Nielman — a Dutch national, re-abducted his one-year-old daughter by force then tried to flee to his home country. He was arrested and charged with ""kidnapping for the purpose of transporting the kidnapped person to a foreign country" (Article 226(1) of the Penal Code)" and was detained for four months. He was later found guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for three years. His appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed.

• Kurisu Saboi (佐保井 久理須, Saboi Kurisu?, born as Christopher Savoie) – In 2009, Christopher Savoie's arrest in Japan made international headlines. Savoie is an American-born, naturalized Japanese father, who despite Japanese nationality law, retains U.S. citizenship. He divorced his wife, Noriko Saboi, in the US, and the Tennessee family court granted Noriko custody due to her agreeing to remain in the US with Christopher being granted visitation rights. Noriko Saboi agreed as part of her signed divorce agreement to reside permanently with her children in Tennessee. She was allowed as part of the divorce decree to take the children for an extended six-week-visit to Japan every year. While she was supposedly on vacation in Japan, she enrolled the children in school and changed their residency to Japan. She and her children returned to Tennessee, and shortly thereafter she abducted them to Japan. Christopher Savoie was subsequently given full custody of the children by a Tennessee court. He flew to Japan and took his children while his ex-wife was dropping them off at school in Fukuoka. Japanese police arrested him for suspicion of kidnapping as he was attempting to enter the local US consulate with his children but he was never charged or indicted. The case and the issue of parental abduction by Japanese nationals has gained significant publicity in U.S. and many countries. In 2011, a judge in Tennessee awarded Christopher $6.1 million (US) from his ex-wife.

• Paul Toland – In 2003, U.S. Navy Captain Paul Toland was stationed at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. While residing at the Navy housing complex in Yokohama, Etsuko Toland left with their then-9-month-old child, Erika. In October 2007, however, Etsuko Futagi Toland committed suicide, and her mother assumed the possession of the child with one source stating that she holds custody. Erika is now nine, and Toland alleges that the grandmother has denied him visitation rights while the lawyer who represents the grandmother in U.S. says that Toland has been given supervised visitation opportunities that he does not take advantage of and he owes years of back child support. Toland states that he has spent over $200,000 in attorney fees and other expenses and additionally spent hundreds of hours in Japanese and U.S. courts. As of 2011, efforts by Captain Toland have continued to be rebuked by his daughter's grandmother. Captain Toland is the only surviving parent of Erika Toland but is denied access to her. U.S. Congressman Christopher Smith described Captain Toland’s case as an intrafamilial child abduction, since the case does not involve abduction by a parent, but rather an abduction by a more distant relative. The Children’s Rights Council has stated that his case “is like the Elian Gonzalez case, but the aggrieved parent is from the United States, not Cuba, and the country blocking the sole surviving biological parent from contact with his child is Japan.”

• Paul Wong – Wong's Japanese wife Akemi Yokoyama Wong died from cancer after fighting the disease for six years. After her death, Wong relocated to Japan to honour his wife's wish to care for her parents; she was an only child. Her parents were both in poor health, in their 70s, and lived on a small pension. He also wanted their daughter, Kaya Wong, to understand her Japanese heritage. Once he moved to Japan, the grandparents refused to let him see his daughter, who stayed with them while he got settled, alleging that he had abused her. Although the court ruled that the allegation could not be substantiated, they still gave custody to the grandparents. Wong has not seen his daughter since 2007.

• Murray Wood – The Wood children, Takara, 10, and Manami, 7, were abducted to Japan by Murray Wood's ex-wife, Ayako Maniwa-Wood. A year-long litigation in the Japanese courts ended in failure in 2006.