Japan has introduced reforms to its family law in an effort to address long-standing concerns over parental custody disputes, where one parent could take a child during divorce proceedings and subsequently gain a significant advantage in custody cases. A revision to the country's civil code, which came into effect in April, now allows both parents to hold legal guardianship after divorce, replacing the previous system under which only one parent retained full parental rights. The changes are intended to promote greater involvement of both parents in a child's upbringing following separation.

Under Japan's former sole custody system, legal rights were typically granted to only one parent after divorce, often the parent who had physical custody of the child. As a result, the other parent could lose meaningful contact with the child unless visitation was voluntarily permitted. Family law experts said the arrangement created an incentive for one parent to leave with the child before initiating divorce proceedings, as maintaining physical custody often strengthened their legal position during subsequent court cases.

Several parents have publicly described the impact of the previous system. Anastasiya Minkova, a US-Russian citizen, told CNN that she returned from a trip to Russia in 2025 to discover that her husband had left with their two-year-old son. Since then, she has only been allowed brief supervised visits. Another parent, identified by the pseudonym Emily Sato, said her husband disappeared with their daughter in 2022, and by the time the case reached court, the father's custody arrangement had become the accepted status quo.

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Jeffery Morehouse, a resident of Seattle in the United States, said he has been separated from his son for 16 years after his former wife relocated to Japan with the child. Morehouse has described the incident as parental abduction under US law and has continued to campaign for stronger legal protections for parents who lose contact with their children following international custody disputes. His case has become one of several cited by advocacy groups calling for reforms to Japan's family law system.

Japan's Ministry of Justice has said the revised legislation requires divorcing parents to respect each other's parental rights and could allow action against a parent who unilaterally removes a child during custody disputes. However, legal experts and campaigners argue that the reforms stop short of guaranteeing shared parenting arrangements or providing effective mechanisms to enforce joint custody and visitation rights after divorce.

Critics also contend that while the law formally expands legal guardianship, it does not criminalise parental abduction or establish robust enforcement measures for shared parenting. Advocacy groups say that without stronger legal safeguards, parents who are separated from their children may continue to face significant obstacles in maintaining meaningful relationships. The reforms are nevertheless viewed as an important first step in addressing a custody system that has drawn criticism both within Japan and internationally.

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