American arrested in Japan for kidnapping own kids from ex-wife

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bluefrog

bluefrog

Go Blazers, GO!
Joined
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Japan Today
CNN
Japanese link
What would you do if your ex-wife took your kids away to a country that doesn't recognize your right to see them?

I would do the exact same thing as this guy. Go there, grab your kids and head for the nearest consulate.

Japanese courts are famous for allowing the Japanese partner in divorced mix marriages to abduct kids and hide under the protection of the Japanese law. Foreigners essentially have no rights in these situations. Most Japanese people support the mother from what I've read...
 
I'd do the same thing. Probably worse. I am not fond of either parent trying to destroy their children by keeping the other way, or by not being there themselves. Now if it turns out he is not good to them, then my stance will change.
 
It's funny how she is obviously breaking US law but the US government can't do anything about it--Even though they probably will.
 
Drop a nuke on Japan after an extraction mission to get the guy and his kids.
 
Ronan said:
It's funny how she is obviously breaking US law but the US government can't do anything about it--Even though they probably will.
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I thought that was strange too. Don't we have an extradition agreement with Japan?
 
Once again Americans don't like it when another country has different rules then their own. Get over it. Not everybody lives like we do, and not everybody wants to live by our rules. In Japan that crime doesn't exist. The guy who got himself in trouble over there knew exactly what he was getting into and what his likelyhood of pulling it off was, which was low at best. She got the best of him and gave him the shaft.
 
hasoos said:
Once again Americans don't like it when another country has different rules then their own. Get over it. Not everybody lives like we do, and not everybody wants to live by our rules. In Japan that crime doesn't exist. The guy who got himself in trouble over there knew exactly what he was getting into and what his likelyhood of pulling it off was, which was low at best. She got the best of him and gave him the shaft.
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I must be missing the posters in this thread who have the view you ascribe to them. What I see are dads saying they would have done the same thing, regardless of what risk was associated with it. :dunno:
 
hasoos said:
Once again Americans don't like it when another country has different rules then their own. Get over it. Not everybody lives like we do, and not everybody wants to live by our rules. In Japan that crime doesn't exist. The guy who got himself in trouble over there knew exactly what he was getting into and what his likelyhood of pulling it off was, which was low at best. She got the best of him and gave him the shaft.
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Knowing the rules then, and the slim chance I'd be able to pull it off, I'd probably just have her killed. It's important that kids have two parents IMO, not if one of them steals the children from the other. So fuck her. She isn't a very fit mother anyway. Then again killing somoene probably doesn't make you a fit person either?
 
hasoos said:
Once again Americans don't like it when another country has different rules then their own. Get over it. Not everybody lives like we do, and not everybody wants to live by our rules. In Japan that crime doesn't exist. The guy who got himself in trouble over there knew exactly what he was getting into and what his likelyhood of pulling it off was, which was low at best. She got the best of him and gave him the shaft.
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Yeah, which posters are you referring to?? I'm also not sure what "that crime doesn't exist" means.

There are hundred of cases where a Japanese parent abducts their kid and runs to Japan where the courts will protect them from the foreign parent. Foreigners are forced to go through the Japanese legal system which doesn't recognize shared custody. There are hundreds of people getting "the shaft". Hundreds of people trying to do things by the book.

This dude knew that and said "Fuck it, I'm getting my kids!" Yes, his wife "got the best of him" and now she has a warrant for her arrest in Tennessee.
 
Black Mamba said:
Drop a nuke on Japan after an extraction mission to get the guy and his kids.
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1199847876732.jpg.[roflposters.com].myspace.jpg
 
so...he did kidnap the kids, right?

How is he in the right here?

Lady was taking her kids to school, crazy dude comes up, kidnaps them and tries to take them to the american embassy?
 
BTOWN_HUSTLA said:
so...he did kidnap the kids, right?

How is he in the right here?
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Did you read the article?

His wife illegally took his kids to Japan. He gained 100% custody after this. He was getting his kids back.

It's like I say you can borrow my car. Then you go to Delaware and register the car in your name. Then I come to Delaware and car jack your ass and you call the cops. Then the cops arrest me for stealing my car back.
 
BTOWN_HUSTLA said:
so...he did kidnap the kids, right?

How is he in the right here?

Lady was taking her kids to school, crazy dude comes up, kidnaps them and tries to take them to the american embassy?
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And, the crazy dude had full custody in this country and zero there. I see your point, but at times there is a "spirit of the law". Clearly, he loves his children and wants to see them- and I'm sure the kids want to see their father.

Would you so easily give up all your rights to see your children?

All he wants is to have some time with them- why is that so bad?
 
I learned something interesting from that CNN article:

Japanese law, however, recognizes Noriko Savoie as the primary custodian, regardless of the U.S. court order. The law there also follows a tradition of sole custody divorces. When the couple splits, one parent typically makes a complete and lifelong break from the children.
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So, when you get divorced in Japan, you get divorced from your entire family? That to me seems bizarre. I wonder where that particular cultural norm came from in Japanese society?
 
bluefrog said:
Did you read the article?

His wife illegally took his kids to Japan. He gained 100% custody after this. He was getting his kids back.

It's like I say you can borrow my car. Then you go to Delaware and register the car in your name. Then I come to Delaware and car jack your ass and you call the cops. Then the cops arrest me for stealing my car back.
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No, he was granted custody after she was already in Japan, likely because she was not there to contest.

Christopher Savoie had visitation rights with his children, but after he returned from a short summer trip, his estranged wife fled to Japan with the children, according to court documents. A United States court then granted sole custody to Savoie.
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BLAZER PROPHET said:
And, the crazy dude had full custody in this country and zero there. I see your point, but at times there is a "spirit of the law". Clearly, he loves his children and wants to see them- and I'm sure the kids want to see their father.

Would you so easily give up all your rights to see your children?

All he wants is to have some time with them- why is that so bad?
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He had visitation rights in this country when she took them to Japan. He is a japanese citizen, according to the article.

Going there and kidnapping the kids is not the answer. Its borderline psychopathic behavior.
 
For some, there is no justification for coming into the US illegally, no matter what you do here or the reasons for coming into the country.

But apparently there can be justification for going into another country and breaking the laws . . . because we are American, dammit!
 
BLAZER PROPHET said:
No, she did to him here what he has now done to her there.
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How so, he only had visitation rights. Unless there was some provision in their custody agreement that specifically forbade her from taking the children to Japan, which is not mentioned, he is SOL.

Him, on the other hand, forcibly abducted the children from the mother. He wasn't even around when the mother moved to japan.
 
The documents obtained Wednesday outline Christopher Savoie’s attempts to restrict his ex-wife’s ability to travel with their 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, and her unhappiness with living in this Nashville suburb.
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there was nothing forbidding her from going to Japan. the children basically lived their entire lives in Japan and the family had only moved back to the US last year.
 
Soon after their divorce was final in January 2009, he again asked for help from the courts, seeking primary custody of the children or an assurance that his ex-wife would not flee with them. He turned over the February e-mail from his ex-wife as evidence that she might leave the country with them.

But in April, a judge held that Noriko Savoie could take the children to Japan for a vacation. In the order, the judge wrote that “this court fully recognizes Father’s concerns regarding Japanese law and the protection of his rights. However, Mother has clearly testified that she intends to remain in Franklin, Tennessee, with the children.”

Noriko Savoie was given the passports. She took the children on vacation and returned as scheduled. But two weeks later they were gone again. Williamson County Clerk and Master Elaine Beeler said there was no court order requiring the mother to return the children’s passports after the vacation.

Savoie has remarried. His wife, Amy, said she understood that her husband could be facing serious charges.
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see.
 
BTOWN_HUSTLA said:
No, he was granted custody after she was already in Japan, likely because she was not there to contest.
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That's what I said:
His wife illegally took his kids to Japan. He gained 100% custody after this. He was getting his kids back.
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She wasn't there to contest because she wasn't making any effort to do things legally.

After the father gained custody he had a snow ball chance is hell of getting the Japanese court to comply. There are hundreds of cases just like this. Taking his kids back was the only option.

If it were the other way around the he would be forced to complyand send the kids back to Japan because the U.S. has signed the Hague treaty.
 
bluefrog said:
That's what I said:


She wasn't there to contest because she wasn't making any effort to do things legally.

After the father gained custody he had a snow ball chance is hell of getting the Japanese court to comply. There are hundreds of cases just like this. Taking his kids back was the only option.

If it were the other way around the he would be forced to complyand send the kids back to Japan because the U.S. has signed the Hague treaty.
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Well they didn't so tough noogies. He is in the wrong for kidnapping the children and deserves to be in jail for circumventing the proper channels.
 
it's_GO_time said:
For some, there is no justification for coming into the US illegally, no matter what you do here or the reasons for coming into the country.

But apparently there can be justification for going into another country and breaking the laws . . . because we are American, dammit!
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He has Japanese citizenship.

But you're missing the point I've tried to make. There are hundreds of people that this has happened to. They loose all contact with their children because Japanese family courts essentially don't recognize shared custody. Going through the courts would have been a waste of time and effort.
 
If you look at the article, you'll notice that the family moved back to the US and almost immediately the divorce proceedings began.

Savoie moved back to the United States in January 2008 and Noriko Savoie and the children moved here in June of that year. Divorce proceedings began soon after.
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It seemed he moved the family back just to get divorced...why? then he got immediately remarried?

I'm putting my money on this guy being an asshole. He had his woman on the side here, took the japanese chick here under false pretenses only to get the kids on US soil and to try to get custody of them with an immediate divorce and then marry the new chick. Only reason she did not get custody was because she did not appear in court in a seemingly meaningless custody and divorce proceeding.
 
BTOWN_HUSTLA said:
Well they didn't so tough noogies. He is in the wrong for kidnapping the children and deserves to be in jail for circumventing the proper channels.
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What proper channels? The Japanese courts side with the Japanese party in these cases regardless of what foreign courts have ruled.
 
bluefrog said:
What proper channels? The Japanese courts side with the Japanese party in these cases regardless of what foreign courts have ruled.
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Yeah, well that's the way the pachinko ball bounces. Japanese citizen. Japanese marriage. Japanese courts.

Obviously the proper channel is not kidnapping the children from school and trying to barge into the US embassy. Who is he, Jack Baeur.
 
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