What happens next
The family-court process in Japan, stage by stage, with what to do at each point.
1. Separation
Whoever the child lives with when the parents separate usually keeps day-to-day care. Courts value continuity, so the arrangement in place on the day you first appear tends to become the baseline.
- Do not move out, or agree to the child moving, without advice.
- Start a dated journal of your care today. Photos with timestamps help.
- Keep every message to your spouse short, polite and about logistics.
2. Filing for mediation
Divorce in Japan must normally go through family-court mediation (chotei) before any lawsuit. There are usually three separate cases: divorce, marital expenses (kon'in hiyo, support while still married) and visitation (menkai koryu, now often called oyako koryu).
- File for visitation early. Time without contact becomes the new normal.
- Marital expenses usually run from the month the claim is filed, not from separation.
3. Mediation sessions
Each session is about two hours. You and your spouse sit in separate rooms. Two lay mediators (chotei iin) shuttle between you. A judge supervises the case but you may never meet them. Briefs and evidence go in a week or two before each session.
- Mediators only know what is in the briefs. Tell them plainly how visits are actually going.
- Rebutting every accusation rarely helps. Showing that contact works does.
- Give ground on procedure to keep the other side at the table.
4. Marital expenses
The court uses a standard table based on both incomes and the number and age of children. If you own your company, expect the other side to argue your real income is higher than your salary, and to ask for company records.
- Have clean documents for your current income, and an explanation for any change.
- Pay the interim amount on time, every month. Missed payments are used against you in everything else.
5. Visitation
The conventional outcome for a non-custodial father is roughly once a month for a few hours. More than that, including overnights, generally comes from agreement in mediation, not from a ruling.
- Ask for a written plan: frequency, handover place and time, holidays, calls, what happens when the child is ill.
- Add a clause to review the plan when the child starts elementary school.
- Every visit that goes smoothly is your best argument for the next one.
6. If mediation fails
Visitation and marital-expense cases move automatically to adjudication (shinpan), where the judge decides. Divorce itself needs a separate lawsuit. A judge's visitation order is usually coarse: how often and how the child is exchanged, close to the conventional standard. Appeals seldom change it.
- Treat adjudication as a floor, not an opportunity.
- A court investigator (chosakan) may interview the parents and the child and visit homes. Their report carries weight.
7. After an agreement
A mediated agreement has the force of a judgment. If visits are blocked, you can ask the court to remind the other parent (riko kankoku) or to order a payment for each breach (kansetsu kyosei), which needs the plan to be specific about dates, times and handover.
- Keep journaling. Keep handovers on time.
- Vague wording cannot be enforced. Get dates, times and places into the document.
Joint custody
Since April 2026 parents can agree on joint parental authority after divorce, or a court can order it. Where the parents are in conflict, courts remain cautious about ordering it. Do not plan around it; plan around a visitation agreement you can sign.