The Japanese parliament has approved a change to a decades-old law, which will allow divorced couples to share custody of their children from 2026.
Traditionally, custody is granted to a single parent who is then able to completely cut off the other parent’s access to their children.
Until Friday, Japan was the only G7 country that did not recognise the legal concept of joint custody.
Most divorces in Japan happen through “consent divorce” – where both parties sign a paper and mutually end a marriage.
In this scenario, lawyers say, the couple is free to decide custody and visitation arrangements. But if the two parties go to court, the judge awards custody to one parent.
This system has drawn criticism from divorced parents who say they have been estranged from their children as a result.
Minako Sato* is one of them.
When Ms Sato moved to her elderly mother’s house to help out for a couple of months, she and her ex-husband agreed he’d bring her then 10-year-old son and five-year-old daughter to visit on weekends.
This arrangement continued for about a month and a half. But Ms Sato said she noticed that her former husband had changed – he was quieter and more distant.
“He stopped talking to me when he brought the kids to my mother’s house,” she said.
“At first I thought he was tired from driving. I didn’t understand what was happening.”
Then he told her he would no longer bring the kids to see her every weekend, claiming his mother called her a bad influence.
‘Whoever takes the child gets custody’
“He said if I got any closer to the (family) home he’d call the police. I was afraid to go near it… (in case) he was violent or told lies to the police (about me).”
She tried calling the house – which her husband and children shared with her mother-in-law – but her calls were blocked. So in a desperate bid to see her daughter, she decided to show up anyway.
“I went to talk to my mother-in-law – I thought maybe she could talk to him to bring me back home.”
