It's seven months since Scott McIntyre's two children went to stay the night at their grandparents' home in Tokyo.

They never came back. 

The children, who are Australian citizens, were taken out of their home and their school, and moved to a secret location. Scott has not heard from them again - only from his Japanese wife's lawyers. He was not even allowed to speak with his son to wish him a happy birthday. 

Scott is a dedicated father. In recent years he has been a stay-at-home dad. He dotes on his children and loves them dearly.

You might reasonably assume that Japan punishes parental abduction, but this is not the case.  A legal precedent called the "continuity principle" means that if a child is settled in a household, they shouldn't be disturbed by authorities. 

In practice, this creates an incentive to abduct - if one parent takes the children and establishes a new household, they get sole custody. They can then completely cut the left-behind spouse out of the children's lives without legal penalty. 

In fact, it is Scott who faces the prospect of incarceration. After months of fruitless legal bids, he entered his parents-in-laws' apartment building in late November to find information on the children's whereabouts

He was subsequently arrested and thrown into a cell, where he remains today. If convicted of "illegal entry", he faces up to three years in jail. 

There are countless parents in the same situation as Scott - Australian, American, French, British and of course Japanese. Some have been separated from their children for years. 

It's not just dads either. Many mothers have suffered the unimaginable cruelty of having their kids taken away by vindictive spouses. 

We call on Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to seek three outcomes when he visits Japan in January.

1. Seek Australian citizen Scott McIntyre's release from jail.

2. Ask Japan to introduce new laws outlawing parental child abduction.

3. Help Australian parents reunite with children abducted by their Japanese spouses. 

Australia can follow the example of the EU - last year, 26 ambassadors wrote a letter pleading with Japan to respect the right of children to see their parents. 

Such an intervention is not without precedent - Australia was one of a number of countries that successfully pressured Japan to sign the Hague Convention on international child abduction in 2014. Unfortunately the Hague Convention does not cover cases that take place on Japanese soil.  

Exposing this dark secret to the light of international pressure, especially in the year of the Tokyo Olympics, is the best way to get justice for Scott and all the other parents who have lost their kids in Japan.

MORE INFORMATION

Use #freescottmcintyre, #japanchildabduction and #kidnappedtojapan to get the word out on Twitter. You can also add #TOKYO2020 to up the pressure. 

Scott's case is getting wide media attention: read stories in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Guardian. 

You can find out more about Japan's shameful parental child abduction crisis by following the links below.  

Parental child abduction becomes a diplomatic embarrassment for Japan ahead of G-7 - Washington Post​

Left behind: Parents challenge Japan's dismal child abduction laws - Metropolis

 

スコット・マッキンタイア氏の2人の子どもたちが東京の祖父母の家に泊まりに行ってから7ヶ月になる。

2人が戻ることは決してなかった。

オーストラリア市民である2人は、自宅や学校から離され、秘密の場所に移された。スコット氏が彼らから連絡をもらうことは2度となかった。日本人である妻側の弁護士からだけだ。誕生日を祝おうと息子と話すことさえ許されなかった。

スコット氏は献身的な父親だ。この数年間、専業主夫を続けてきた。子煩悩で、彼らを深く愛している。

親による子の連れ去りが日本でも罪になることは当然だと思うかもしれない。しかしそうではない。「継続性の原則」と呼ばれる判例では、子どもがある家庭に定住すれば、関係当局によって子どもの生活は妨害されるべきではないとされている。

実際にこれは連れ去りの動機を生んでいる。一方の親が子どもを連れて行き、新たな家庭を築いたら、単独親権を得ることになる。そして刑事罰を受けることなしに、残された配偶者を子どもの生活から完全に切り離すことができる。

事実、収監の可能性に直面しているのはスコット氏の方だ。数ヶ月に及ぶ無益な法的努力の後、スコット氏は子どもたちの居場所に関する情報を得るために、11月下旬に義理の両親のマンションのエントランスに侵入した。

彼は数日後に逮捕され、留置所に入れられ、現在もまだそこにいる。「不法侵入」で有罪になれば、スコット氏は最高3年の懲役刑を言い渡される。