Japan: deprived of seeing his children, Frenchman Vincent Pichot begins hunger strike
The French father Vincent Fichot begins a hunger strike this Saturday, July 10 in Tokyo to be able to have the right to see his children.
© PHILIP FONG / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
A Frenchman prevented from seeing his children since their kidnapping by their Japanese mother in 2018 began a hunger strike in Tokyo on Saturday July 10.
An action that comes two weeks before the opening of the Olympic Games and the arrival of Emmanuel Macron.
The French president had promised to act in favor of these French parents without access to their children in Japan, where parental abduction is a tolerated practice due to the lack of a law on shared custody.
Publicity
Read more
“
I gave everything, lost my job, my house and my savings for three years.
I have 80 kilos left, and I will give them to the last ounce,
”says Vincent Fichot, sitting on a floor mat at the entrance to a station in Tokyo, not far from the new Olympic stadium.
Posted by Pour Tsubasa and Kaédé Fichot on Friday July 9, 2021
This 39-year-old Frenchman, who has been living in Japan for 15 years, assures us that he will not stop his action until he has recovered his children, a boy and a girl now aged 6 and 4.
Otherwise, he wants the French authorities to show him that they "
really want
" to defend his children and "
apply sanctions against Japan
", which he says violates its international commitments.
His wife used a pretext of domestic violence before the judges, but "
she retracted
" subsequently and today, the Japanese justice "
has nothing to reproach me
", assures Mr. Fichot.
Parental abduction, a practice tolerated in Japan
Shared custody of children in the event of separation does not exist legally in Japan.
Parental abduction is therefore a common practice and tolerated by local authorities.
“
Japan is the only industrialized country not to have adopted a shared custody system.
If such a system were introduced, it would considerably reduce child abductions
, ”recently said Takanori Hashimoto, founder of the Japan Children Rights association.
There are no official figures, but the Kizuna Child-Parent Reunion association estimates that 150,000 minors are victims each year in the archipelago.
Among them are binational children, like those of Vincent Fichot, who after running up against a wall against the Japanese authorities and justice, turned to the French justice and state, European authorities and United Nations.
Vincent Fichot is part of a group of ten fathers and mothers of four different nationalities
who filed a complaint in 2019
with the United Nations Human Rights Council.
A judicial investigation for the subtraction of minors targeting his wife was also opened in France at the end of 2020.
Japanese society still tends to closely associate mother and child.
Hence the fact that legal actions by fathers to see their children seem incongruous, according to lawyer Akira Ueno: “
This is the reason why Japanese public opinion pays little attention to this problem. .
"
Alerting international public opinion
Not discouraged, the Frenchman planned to lead his hunger strike day and night.
If the police chase him away, he intends to continue elsewhere.
Members of his support committee in Tokyo, including other foreign parents in the same situation, must regularly bring him water, clean clothes and recharge his electronic devices.
Vincent Fichot also plans to publish a short daily video on his Facebook page, to explain the problem in Japan and provide information on his physical condition.
French President Emmanuel Macron is due to travel to Tokyo on July 23 and 24, in particular to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
In 2019, during his last visit to Japan, the Head of State pledged to act in favor of French parents who no longer had access to their children in Japan, citing "
situations of distress which are absolutely unacceptable
" .
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Japan
Rights of the child
Kidnappings
France