https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/12/14/national/french-national-wife-child-visitations/
- by Kanako Takahara
- Staff writer
- Dec 14, 2022
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More than a year since French national Vincent Fichot staged a hunger strike to highlight his separation from his children, his Japanese wife finally broke her silence Wednesday, claiming she cannot allow visits due to a lack of mutual trust.
The Fichot case has made headlines domestically and internationally, drawing media attention over what was seen as a tragic case of a father not being able to see his children ever since his wife disappeared with them in 2018 due to a failed relationship.
But the wife, who did not reveal her real name due to privacy concerns, told the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan that she fled because Fichot had been threatening her, and that she wanted to discuss the situation in a quiet environment that wouldn’t disrupt the children’s daily routines.
She did not elaborate on the details of the threats but suggested that she received “digital abuse” on social media and from other media outlets because of Fichot’s hunger strike, which took place just before the Tokyo Olympics kicked off, eroding her trust in her husband. French President Emmanuel Macron raised the issue with then-Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in their talks during his visit to Japan for the Games.
When a reporter asked the wife whether it is in the interests of the children to prevent them from seeing their father, she responded that, though that would be ideal, it wouldn’t work in her case.
People may ask “why (the) children can’t meet both parents,” she said, speaking in English. “If I can do it, I already do it. But he put me in a bad position, not talking face to face.”
In the end, she feared what he might do if she allowed him to meet the children, and she has effectively been in hiding for the past four years so that Fichot won’t find her. In July this year, the Tokyo Family Court granted her divorce from her husband — which has been appealed — and she won custody of the children.
Her lawyer, Harumi Okamura, who was also present at the news conference, said that Fichot could have filed for visitation rights to the court but to date he has not done so.
Fichot, meanwhile, says that he has not been able to contact his children since the mother ran away with them, and that they have the right to see both parents.
Fichot’s case shows how raising children together, or even ensuring visitation rights, can be difficult if the couple is not on good terms. The couple’s divorce has not yet been formalized.
The move to divorce comes amid ongoing discussions over the possibility of Japan introducing joint custody for divorced parents.
A Justice Ministry panel released an interim proposal last month that included options for divorced parents to be granted joint custody, a potential shift from the current system of only allowing sole custody.
Fichot has been pushing for joint custody to be introduced in Japan, but his wife has other thoughts.
“If joint custody is introduced in Japan and if I allow my children to meet with my husband, I don’t know what would happen,” Fichot’s wife said. “I would have to raise my children with the husband.”
“I understand that cases like mine are not the only ones out there. But there are people like me who can’t raise their voices,” she said.
In 2019, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child issued reports stating that Japan should revise its legislation to “allow for shared custody of children when it is in the child’s best interests, including for foreign parents, and ensure that the right of the child to maintain personal relations and direct contact with his or her nonresident parent can be exercised on a regular basis.”
Although not directly relevant, the Fichot case has also touched a nerve with many because of the history of cross-border child abductions in Japan. In 2014, Tokyo signed The Hague Convention, which sets out rules and procedures for the prompt return of children under 16 to their country of habitual residence after they have been taken or retained by one parent.