Hi there! My name is Catherine Henderson and I am a passionate writer and an activist for children's rights. I am also a mother and a secondary school teacher. I am originally from Melbourne, Australia but I have been living in Tokyo since 2003. I've been cut off from my children as a result of the outdated family law system here in Japan. I work with other impacted parents, consular staff, lawyers, politicians and children's rights advocates to bring about lasting legislative and social change in Japan. My ultimate goal is for parents to spend safe, meaningful and substantial time with their children regardless of their relationship status with the other parent. I was cut off from my children when they were taken without my knowledge or permission by their father in April 2019. I believe he did this in order to obtain custody using the 'continuity principle' in the Japanese family law system; a system that only allows sole custody for one parent after divorce. We were in the middle of divorce proceedings when he took the children without warning from the family home. I have not had any contact with my children since they were taken. I had no idea that my then husband's action would ultimately lead to the loss of custody of the children and that I would no longer have any opportunities to spend time with them or have any say in their lives. I was effectively blocked from them by my husband who was supported by the Japanese legal system. Despite having lived in Japan since 2003, I had no idea that the Japanese family law system was so different from the joint custody system in Australia. The children's father didn't let me know where the children were living or enable me to have any contact with them. No one from the Japanese Family Court even met with the children until December 2019, a full eight months without any contact with me, and by that time the children were saying that they didn't want to meet me and that they feared me. All of this is despite the fact that we had had a very good relationship before their father decided he wanted to divorce. Our divorce was finalised in January 2022 and I was forced to leave the family home and hand it over to my ex-husband. Since then I have been unable to work as a teacher. I spend my days trying to recover my physical and mental health as well as advocating for change and supporting parents like myself who have found their lives devastated by the outdated legal system in Japan and the lack of awareness of the system. This issue affects many Japanese children and parents each and every year, but also children and parents in international marriages with a Japanese person such as myself no matter where they live in the world. I am working towards Japan adopting a comprehensive new system based on world's best practice and the principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I hope for a system where both the needs and the wants of the child are acknowledged and accepted whilst responsible adults make decisions which are in their best interests. I hope that one day soon both parents are treated fairly in the legal system in Japan. Ï have developed this website to create awareness of this outdated and damaging system and I hope that you will join me and other like-minded people in agitating for change.