The Following are excerpts of articles and videos
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Congresswoman Sanchez's speech on the floor of the House of Representives about Keisuke
Mr. Speaker, I recently learned of a situation concerning a constituent of mine, Randy Collins, whose ex-wife abducted their son and went to Japan. The last time Randy Collins saw his son, Keisuke Christian Collins, was on June 15, 2008.
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HOUSE RESOLUTIONS
House Resolution 125
House calls for the return of children abdcuted to Brazil & Japan
House Resolution 1326
Condemning Japan for International Parental Abduction
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Excerpt from U.S. Removes North Korea From Terrorism List
Fox News.Com, Oct 11, 2008
Japan had been resistant, arguing that North Korea should not be taken off the list until the cases of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s are resolved. "We strongly urge North Korea to address Japan's concerns without further delay," McCormack said.
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Commentary:
Japan's arrogance and hypocriscy is astounding on this issue. While condemning North Korea for the kidnapping of 16 Japanese citizens by North Korea almost 30 years ago, Japan and its family court system continues to condon, support, and encourage the kidnappings of over 20,000 children into their country in the past 10 years. This number is growing every day. When will Japan be held to the same standard in which they expect North Korea to have to abide by?
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Clinton warns N. Korea:
MSNBC.MSN.COM Feb 14, 2009
"I will assure our allies in Japan that we have not forgotten the families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea and I will meet with some of those families in Tokyo next week," she said.
"I don't know that I'll be meeting as a secretary of state, any more than I will be meeting with them as a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister," Clinton said.
"I cannot imagine what it must feel like to have lost family members and, for so many years, never to have heard anything about them or from them," she said. "It's important that their plight not be forgotten. I attach great importance to the abduction issue."
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Assistant Secretary Campbell Addresses False Abuse Claims
These allegations caused extraordinary unhappiness among this community, most of whom in the United States already had legal custody, sometimes had gone through divorce or were separated. We can find almost no cases of alleged or actual substantiated claims of violence and where those apply, we of course, understand and support that. But because of the legal situation in Japan, I think that this allegation is used very loosely and oftentimes inappropriately without any supporting criteria whatsoever, and our particular issue is with a situation in which once there has been a separation or a divorce in the United States and when a parent is given dual custody -- parents are given dual custody -- and one of the parents takes the children to Japan outside of a legal framework that's been established. That's kidnapping, and that's a very grave and worrisome problem that needs to be dealt with. I would say that there is a substantial misconception on this issue in Japan that the cases that we are dealing with are primarily those of domestic abuse. Our judgment would be that that is not the case.
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Japan inches toward signing Hague treaty on child abductions
Two weeks ago, the Japanese government made a notable announcement that may make Japan more compatible with the legal conventions used internationally, and will be of particular benefit to non-Japanese spouses of Japanese. The announcement was that by 2010, Japan would sign the the 1980 Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, an international legal construct that attempts to deal with the thorny issue of court jurisdiction when children of international marriages are moved cross-border, often by a parent trying to thwart a court ruling in the previous jurisdiction.
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Symposium on International Parental Child Abduction
U.S. Embassy Tokyo, Japan
Thursday, May 21, 2009
A parental abduction to a country that is not yet a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is a tragic event. And it is tragic whether an American citizen child is abducted to Japan or a Japanese citizen child is abducted to a non-Hague country such as the Philippines. A left-behind parent in a situation like that is left with no legitimate options, nowhere to turn, and in some cases, no hope.
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Father Arrested in Japan Underscores Need for Reforms
Smith Bill Sanctions Countries that Refuse to Help Left-Behind Parents…
The case of an American father who has been arrested in Japan for attempting to regain access to his children, taken to Japan by his ex-wife in violation of a U.S. court order, is helping to raise awareness of the increasing problem of international parental child abduction and the heartbreak and frustration suffered by the parents left behind.
“International child abduction violates the rights of the left behind parent and the rights of the child to know both parents,” said Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04), a senior Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a Congressional Representative to the United Nations. “Sadly, international child abductions are on the increase. In the last three years, reported international child abductions have increased 60 percent.”
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Seoul Times Article
September 9, 2009
I am the Tokyo Correspondent of The Seoul Times and I have been honoured in recent months by many left behind parents. All these left behind parents are victims because of the Japanese political and legal system which is allowing child abduction, parental alienation, cultural alienation, religious alienation, and linguistic alienation.
Both Walter Benda and David Brian Thomas who founded The Children’s Rights Council of Japan (http://www.crcjapan.com) state that “the best parent is both parents.” This organization is trying its best to fight against the injustices of the Japanese legal system and the political system which is allowing child abduction.
This article highlights the personal pain and sorrow of Randy Collins and it is "a real story and tragedy" that could happen to anyone because of the Japanese political and legal system.