The ex-husband of famed table tennis player Ai Fukuhara, who announced her retirement from competition in 2018, has accused her of
kidnapping their son. This high-profile conflict has drawn attention to the long-standing problem of claimed foreign child abductions b Japanese spouses.
Taiwanese table tennis player Chiang Hung-chieh, Fukuhara’s ex-husband, has accused her of blocking their son’s return to Taiwan.
Chiang made the remarks on Thursday at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. He also mentioned that on July 20, a Japanese
court decided that Fukuhara had to give up their son.
Chiang and Fukuhara apparently agreed to joint custody while in Taiwan, and Chiang filed for divorce from Fukuhara two years ago.
At the press briefing, Hsu Sung Po, Chiang’s Taiwanese attorney, said that the court had also issued a temporary restraining order against Fukuhara.
Chiang’s Japanese attorney, Aiko Ohbuchi, stated, “This is that type of (rare) case… such a temporary restraining order is very rare.” “Ai
Fukuhara has not contacted us regarding this matter, so she must turn over their son right away,” the statement reads.
According to Ohbuchi, they have no idea where the son is or whether he will be turned over. She said that Fukuhara attempted to cancel
Thursday’s press presentation by fax and email, but he remained silent about turning over the son.
Chiang stated, “Since my son and daughter have only one mother, I would like to keep our relationship going and continue to think about
the situation.” “I pray that Ms. Fukuhara will give me my child in a calm manner.”
Considering that Fukuhara brought the boy to Singapore just a year ago, Ohbuchi expressed anxiety that she would move him abroad.
According to Hsu, on July 23 of last year, Fukuhara transported the boy to Japan and a week later, they lost communication with Chiang.
Ohbuchi continued, “Chiang had anticipated meeting their son later that summer.”
Fukuhara has been hailed as one of Japan’s best athletes over the past 20 years. The young prodigy from Sendai, who competed in her
first Olympics at the age of 15, went on to become a four-time Olympian and earn bronze in the Rio de Janeiro games in 2016 and team
silver in London over ten years ago. The media has followed her path intently.
Known by her loving nicknames “Ai-chan” in Japan and “porcelain doll” in China, Fukuhara gave birth to a daughter in 2016, around a
year after the pair announced their union. In March 2024, she gave birth to a boy.
Japan became the final G7 country to ratify the 1980 Hague Convention against international child abduction in 2014. The convention is a
global agreement designed to shield kids against international kidnapping of their parents.
It creates a process wherein judges choose where children should live in order to restore them to what is considered their natural
residence. When it comes to situations of children being brought into Japan or removed from the country, the convention is applicable.
As of June of this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan has handled 346 instances pertaining to the implementation of the law,
with judgments being made on 309 of them.”It is difficult for handovers in international marriages because (child) abduction is also a
serious issue in Taiwan, especially since they are not part of the Hague (convention),” Hsu stated.
Government statistics indicates that around 16,500 marriages in Japan in 2021 had a foreign partner. Approximately 8,300 divorces
involving similar marriages occurred in the same year.
Not every incidence of purported parental abduction involves the removal of a kid from one nation and placed in another.
Before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, French national Vincent Fichot went on a hunger strike in an effort to draw attention to his
allegations that his Japanese wife, with whom he is estranged, stole his children. This action garnered him notoriety.
Fichot’s allegations were not looked into by Japanese authorities, but in an unusual step, a Paris court issued an international arrest order
for his wife in connection with the couple’s purported August 2024 home abduction of their two children.His wife filed a lawsuit against
publishers in December, saying they disseminated false information about what her husband claimed to be parental abduction.
In a different instance, Australian journalist Scott McIntyre received a six-month suspended jail sentence for breaking into his estranged
in-laws’ house to see how his kids were doing after a storm. He claims that since May 2024, he has not seen his kids.
