Forever mine
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Dates2021 - Ongoing
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Author
Forever mine
An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Japanese children lose access to a parent every year. Since 1991, over 3,000,000 children have been ripped away from a parent within Japan, legally with the help of single custody laws in Japan, the only developed G8 Country with no joint custody.
The country's Shinken or parental rights system means that after a divorce a parent not only loses custody but also all parental rights. After divorce, the non-custodial parent has no say whatsoever in their child’s life. They cannot access their child’s medical or school records. They definitely cannot take part in any decisions relating to the child’s school or health. And they cannot fight the adoption or guardianship cases of their child in court.
Japan's single custody law violates the fundamental human rights of Japanese children and is contrary to the best interests of a child. Ultimately, it is the children who suffer the most from Japan’s single custody laws. Children who grow up in single-parent homes or who are abducted by one of their parents struggle with a number of socio-economic and psychological issues. They are at-risk for emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. They are more likely to suffer from poverty, limiting their access to quality education and health services. Research shows that children and adults who’ve suffered from child parental abduction also experience psychological issues and generational trauma as they’re robbed of half of their identity — sometimes losing an entire culture, language, and the support of extended family.
The project is about parents who have been deprived of the access to their children.
One day they come back home and find the house empty. From that moment on, they are advocated by many legal authorities such as police or lawyers: go home and forget about your child. Get used to it. Shoganai (Japanese nothing can be done about this) Yet, not everybody does. Some can not overcome the suffering of parental alienation and go suicidal and some go for action fighting with the system which in most cases puts them into jail for months or even years.
One of the parents presented in the project is Vincent Fichot, French left behind father. In July 2021 during the Olympics in Tokyo, Vincent decided to go on a very public hunger strike, having exhausted all other remedies as he seeks to be reunited with his children. His wife took the children away suddenly three years ago and he hasn’t seen them since. He is still married and under Japanese law, he has all the rights of a father, but Japan’s courts have failed to force his wife to allow Fichot to see his kids.
Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), every child has the right to maintain a personal relationship and direct contact with both their parents, unless it is contrary to their interests.
The project is about parents who have been deprived of the access to their children, they don't know where they are but they do all they can to search for their children, to let them know they have a loving parent left behind.
Status of the project as for October 2021:
It is an ongoing project which will consist of documentary photography based on portraits and artefacts such as letters, diaries and goods left to the left behind parents.
I plan to photograph parents living in Japan, searching for their kids, as well as children who are reunited with their parents. In the submitted document there is a sample of photos and texts - not a final version yet.
In the research I concentrate on personal stories, legal documents, facts and statistics as well as on the opinion of the child and hostage psychologists.
As an end product, I would like to present a publication in the form of an exhibition, online and on spot both in Japan and overseas and in the form of a photobook, which I will work on together with Yumi Goto the Japanese documentary photography curator.
The left behind parents fight to change the law and jurisdictional system in Japan, yet they believe a change needs to come from outside Japan, this is why I hope this project might help to spread awareness among the international audience.