Previously, divorcing couples in Japan were free to decide custody and visitation arrangements. But if they went to court over it, custody would only be awarded to one parent.
Under the new law, a family court can decide whether to grant sole or joint custody to divorcing couples.
Parents who divorced under the old system are also now eligible to have their custody arrangement reviewed by the family court.
That’s crazy, but I’m in fascist America, so who am I to talk.
In a way. It’s also weird for the kid to have effectively a split life.
What’s the alternative though? You never see one of your parents until you turn 18? That would be weirder (assuming normal parents not abusive psychopaths) than living in two places.
It depends on the stability that the parents can provide. There are so many ways this can go, that I’m not going to make generalized assumptions, but it’s entirely possible with a system like that for a mother to have sole custody of a child when she is not the more stable option, just because she is the mother. From the sound of it, most parents don’t go to the courts and work it out themselves, which is fantastic, but if both parents want to be in the life of the child, and both are stable and responsible parties, the court shouldn’t prevent that. That being said, I don’t have any first-hand experience with the Japanese courts, and I’m going to stop guessing at how all this plays out.
This makes me wonder if the legal definition of ‘custody’ in Japan is similar to what might be referred to as ‘primary custodian’ in other places. I’m assuming that children of divorced parents still spend time with both.
If that’s not the case, now that the family court is reviewing these old arrangements, I wonder what the impact would be of shared custody for a child that hasn’t had any interaction with one of its parents for several years.