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Passports Home  > Stories > Passports I recently posted messages about my 'wife' suggesting we continue to live together (for the children's sake) after getting divorced and then, when I told her that I couldn't agree to that idea, how she insisted that I pay off the loan on the house for the next 25 years even though I wouldn't be living there. Well, things have moved on and she has given up on those ideas. However, she has gotten herself a lawyer and I have just received a list of her demands. One of them is to do with my two children's passports. At present they have dual nationality, and, by some quirk of fate, I happen to have possession of one set while she has possession of their Japanese passports. She is insisting that I surrender the set I have so that she can have sole possession of their passports. I am totally opposed to the idea as I can imagine her taking them to another country and I would never be able to take them out even if they wanted me to. Has anybody else had problems regarding passports of kids with dual nationality? Perhaps you could share some thoughts upon this subject. Posted By: Graham 10/6/2005 Order: Oldest First Newest First harry222 (4 posts) 10/6/2005 2:15:55 PM re: Passports   profile Hi there, I'm not quite sure what you mean by "her taking them to another country" if she has a house (presumably) in Japan and she's Japanese. She could still use their Japanese passports for vacations etc. I have also had problems over the possession of our son's 'second' passport. For no rational reason my wife believed I would take him out of the country simply because I was non-Japanese and separated from her. Ironically it was only she that had ever taken our child away when things didn't go her way. She demanded I return his p/port to her but I always refused on principle. You are not required to give them to her and even if you did her attitude would probably not change anyway. This became a small issue for me in the family court and I even offered the passport to the court for safekeeping to reassure everyone it was not my intention to abduct our child. The court didn't want to hold onto the p/port and neither did they insist I give it to her. In the end the matter blew over when it expired. If you have to go to court and the passport issue comes up point this out... /snip/ Japan's stance that parental abduction is not a crime can change when a foreigner is the abductor. Engle Nieman, 46, was arrested at the Osaka port and spent four months in jail for trying to go home to the Netherlands with his 1-year-old daughter after his wife moved in with her parents. He was arrested under an old law against trafficking of girls for prostitution. He was prosecuted, but she flaunts the law, he complained... http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A2697-2003Jul16¬Found=true 親による誘拐を犯罪とみなさない日本の立場は、誘拐者が外国人であった場合には変わってしまう。46歳のエングル・ニーマン（Engle Nieman）は、大阪港で逮捕され、四ヶ月間、留置場で過ごしたことがある。それは、彼の妻が両親と同居するために引っ越してしまった後、1歳になる 娘を連れてオランダへ帰ろうとしたのが理由だった。 ニーマンは、少女売春取引に関する古い法律の下に逮捕されたのだった。彼は起訴されたが、前妻はこれみよがしに法律を振り回した、と彼は嘆く。 http://www.crnjapan.com/articles/ja/washpost20030717divorcedfromkids.html Harry

FRIJ recommends you also visit crn japan, who are fighting international abduction to Japan and working to assure children in Japan of meaningful contact with both parents regardless of marital status