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TOKYO (Kyodo) — For some foreign parents who have been separated in Japan from their children due to divorce from their Japanese spouses, the expiration of their spousal visa poses a major headache as interventions by the immigration authorities could easily severe ties between such parents and kids.

Supporters of those foreign parents say the Japanese immigration officials often view their visitation rights as not being a reason to permit continued residence in the country and issue deportation orders, thereby depriving children of access to one parent for a long time.

Md Shahidul Huq, a 42-year-old Bangladeshi freelance photographer, and a 28-year-old man from Mali were detained at immigration facilities for about a year and six months, respectively, as they faced deportation orders after their spousal visa expired following their divorce from Japanese wives.

They have been provisionally released and are now seeking revocation of the deportation orders so they can stay in Japan and see their daughters again. In principle, those who are deported back to their home countries cannot reenter Japan for five years.

Both of them say they had met their children regularly even after divorce before the visa problem arose.

Huq, who has lived in Japan for 23 years, said his former wife in western Japan’s Kochi Prefecture, who has custody of their 7-year-old daughter, refused to allow him to see the girl after he asked her to transfer custody of the child to him in order to solve his visa problem.

“The immigration authorities turned down my application for a long-term resident visa because I didn’t have custody of my child. They also rejected my application for a business manager visa I filed as a last resort to stay in Japan. My life has been completely messed up (due to the visa problem),” Huq said.

The Bangladeshi journalist says he had paid alimony and seen the daughter every three months in Kochi until about three years ago. “In my country, it’s natural for parents to meet children even after divorce. Since I haven’t seen my daughter for a long time, I’m worried if she has forgotten about me,” he said.

“Children need both parents. One parent cannot give them enough counsel,” Huq said. “If I’m deported back to Bangladesh, I’d be worried about my daughter to death.”

The father of a 3-year-old girl from Mali, who declined to be named, also said his former wife in Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, stopped allowing him to contact the daughter after his application for long-term resident visa was denied and he was detained at an immigration facility in October 2010.

Before the detention, the man, who had been a foundry worker, met his former wife, who has custody of the daughter, and the child twice each month after the couple divorced in 2009.

“Probably my former wife wishes I would be forced out of Japan, but once I return to Mali, I cannot see my daughter and both the kid and I will suffer,” the man said. “Every child wants to know what his or her parent is like. I believe the system in Japan that prevents exchanges between parents and children should be changed.”

Jotaro Kato, a representative of the Asian People’s Friendship Society, which is offering support to the two foreigners in trouble, said foreign fathers who do not have custody of their children tend to be put in a disadvantageous position in applying for a long-term resident visa following the expiration of their spousal visa, compared with mothers.

“Generally speaking, divorced foreigners who had been married to a Japanese for three years are considered eligible to apply for a long-term resident visa. Compared with fathers without child custody, it would be easier for mothers to acquire such a visa if they mainly take care of children who have Japanese nationality after divorce,” he said.

Among such foreign fathers, many white-collar workers can continue to stay in Japan on a working visa, but the status of blue-collar workers tends to become unstable after their spousal visa expires, Kato said.

What could complicate the situation more is the change of residence management system under the revised Immigration Control Act, which will be implemented from July for spousal visa holders, Kato and other supporters of foreign residents say.

As a stricter way of cracking down on bogus marriages, foreign spouses of Japanese nationals could lose their residency status if they fail to “conduct activities normally carried out by spouses” for six months.

At present, spousal visas are effective up to three years, but foreigners divorced or separated from their Japanese spouses could have their residence status revoked even before the expiration of their visa after the change of the system.

However, victims of domestic violence and those engaged in mediation over custody of a child are deemed to have “justifiable reason” for not engaging in spousal activities and are treated as exceptions, according to the Justice Ministry.

A ministry official said if foreign and Japanese parents are engaged in mediation over the child visitation rights, the authorities have no clear-cut standards and decide whether each case would make an exception to the revocation of residence status based on judgment in a comprehensive manner.

Ongoing negotiations on the visitation rights would be “just one factor” in examining whether to nullify the residence status of foreign parents, the official said.

Masako Suzuki, an attorney at Tokyo Public Law Office’s Section of Legal Assistance for Foreigners, said since Japan adopts the sole custody system, the status of noncustodial parents “tends to be weak” and that judgments by the immigration authorities “merely reflect” such a situation.

“Japanese former spouses who don’t want to have their kids see the other parent often exploit the immigration authorities’ disregard of visitation rights in examining foreign parents’ residence status,” Suzuki said.

Immigration officials also suspect that some foreigners claim visitation rights “just as an excuse to continue to stay in Japan,” she added.

The lawyer lamented the situation in which ties between parents and children can be forcibly cut by state intervention and said she expects the revision last May of the Civil Code to have a positive influence on the matter. The legal change underlines the need to decide on visitations when parents divorce by agreement.

(Mainichi Japan) February 22, 2012