CHILDREN-JAPAN: Court Ruling Raises Hopes for Stateless Children

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 3 1995 (IPS) - A four-year-old boy, believed to be half- Filipino, has finally been granted Japanese citizenship after a long court battle, raising hopes for more than 100 other stateless children in Japan.

In a society that takes pride in its homogeneity, children of mixed race are often refused recognition by their Japanese fathers, and their mothers, unable to support the children on their own, abandon them at hospitals or orphanages.

Such was the case of Andrew, whose mother left him at a hospital in the northern Japanese town of Komoro soon after his birth. His mother is believed to be a Filipina and the nationality of his father is unknown.

When U.S. missionary William Rees and his wife adopted Andrew, local authorities refused to register him as a Japanese and instead classified him as a stateless foreigner.

The Philippine embassy in Tokyo also refused to grant him Filipino citizenship unless it was established that his mother was indeed a Filipina.

In 1992, Andrew’s adoptive parents filed a case under Japan’s Nationality Law which awards citizenship to a child when both parents are unknown.

The Tokyo High Court turned down the plea in 1993, saying Andrew was not stateless since his biological mother was “suspected” of being a Filipino national.

But the Supreme Court overturned that decision in a precedent- setting ruling last week. It pointed out that the nationality of Andrew’s mother had not be legally established so he still fell under the category of stateless children.

“It’s really a good ruling and I am gratified. I think it will be a major step forward for Japanese society and other stateless children,” said Rees.

The Japanese Justice Ministry says there are 138 stateless children in the country, mostly born to South-east Asian mothers. Activists say the real number could even be double that figure.

Volunteers say apart from the difficult struggle to gain legal recognition and child support from their Japanese fathers, children of mixed parentage also have to deal with widespread discrimination in Japanese society.

“The fact that the Supreme Court had to step in (to grant Japanese citizenship to Andrew) demonstrates the discrimination faced by foreigners in Japan. There is no concern for their rights or their needs here,” says lawyer Yasunobu Takii.

Takii belongs to a team of Japanese lawyers who are studying the problems of hundreds of illegitimate children born to Filipino mothers and Japanese fathers, known as ‘Japinos’.

These children cannot obtain Japanese nationality or legitimate child support because their Japanese fathers refuse to recognise them.

“The situation is hopeless for these children. Japan’s Nationality Law which helped Andrew does not apply to them because their mothers are known,” said Takii.

Help, a volunteer group that runs a home for abused Asian women, welcomes the Supreme Court decision as a positive development in the long battle to force the government to pay more attention to the growing number of Asian women workings as bar hostesses and prostitutes in Japan.

“It’s an important ruling but the government still has to do something about the large number of women out there who have to raise their half-Japanese children all by themselves,” said a Help volunteer.

Lawyers such as Mizuho Fukushima contend the problem of stateless children must be addressed from the point of view of their rights.

“It is the right of a child to have a nationality. It is therefore natural for Andrew, who was born in Japan, to have Japanese citizenship,” says Fukushima.

Japan last year ratified the international human rights covenant that recognises the rights of the child as an individual.

This, says Fukushima, means Andrew has the right to nationality, and the hundreds of Japinos living in Japan or the Philippines have the right to choose Japanese nationality and get support from their Japanese fathers.

Lawyers say the situation is different for Japanese children born out of wedlock, which is not unusual in this society.

A number of court rulings last year awarded illegitimate children the right to the same share of their father’s inheritance as their legitimate siblings are entitled to.

Takii, who has met with several Japanese men who have fathered children with Filipinas, says many are reluctant to accept the children legally because they are part foreign.

“Some of the men promise to pay for the children’s upbringing but they refuse to recognise them and register them as Japanese because they say it dirties the family register,” he says.

“Japanese society places greater emphasis on the need to save face than the truth,” adds Takii. “This hypocrisy must stop and South-east Asian mothers must be respected.”