Well the Japanese mom should have thought very very well before deciding to move to Bumf*ck, Tennessee. Because US courts almost never grant full custody and rights to move out of the country to a parent.
Maybe she expected Japanese style custody, where one parent (mostly mom) gets custody and is free to go….?

It seems that they divorced and he married someone else pretty quickly. Mom agreed to stay in the small town in order to share custody. We don't know the details on why they divorced or if his re-marriage was the reason for it and what happened. We also don't know her situation - did she see a future for herself in Tennessee?

If the man you used to love once is now hating you and harassing you (that is what she stated once in court), and you live in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country and all you have are your children and you don't see them half of the time, I would probably also ponder this route she took, seeing there are big chances of getting away with it.

In general, it's very obvious that the country where the children are currently in will decide to the favor of the native parent. In this case, the father may be out of luck now.

It might depend on the age of the kinds too, if they are young it may not be that traumatic. They'll end up with duo citizeship if they stay in Japan, cause they are allready American, wich may not be a bad thing either.

Sounds like they already had dual citizenship

There are two sides to every story - and we only know one.

It really frustrates me to see some of the leaps people make to defend the non-Japanese parent without knowing anything about the private issues involved. I`ve been involved (translating) in quite a few unpleasant divorce situations and have seen the other side of it... And there are REALLY some horror stories on both sides. There was one that was up around the net about the wife kidnapping the two kids and running back to Japan because she was crazy, etc, etc - posted of course by the father... I ended up translating for the wife (husband pulled an "I can`t understand any Japanese, and demand that you deal with my English only lawyers - despite having spoken Japanese to you for years before this" the minute things got bad) and she had been locked in the house 24/7, wasn`t even allowed to open windows (he had hairs taped across every possible exit) and he`d come home and still accuse her of sleeping with other guys... Then take the kids and be gone for a week at a girlfriend`s house leaving mom locked in the basement with nothing but snacks and water from the den toilet.

She ran, and now is the bad guy while he is the poor father abused by Japanese law.

There are always two sides to every story.

I agree, Nyororin...we have heard one chapter, but haven't heard the chapters leading up to this one.

All I can say is, don't have children in Japan.

If you do, and you wish to maintain your kids for primary residence for whatever reasons upon separation, you will have no chance and you will lose the shirt off ya back.

A Japannese would never be "bettered" by a foreigner within Japanese courts.

I had a good feamle American friend in Japan who was being violated by her JP husband.

She knew the rules, she got out quick back to the US with her son.

In Japan, unfortunately if the other side is non Japanese,you can expect one side only, male or female.

Im curious if you are a father or not? Respecting another countries laws are very important and yes they should be obeyed. Try telling that to a mother who kids were taken or a fathers who kids were taken from him. If i go by what you are saying if this was you, you would abandon your children now i know you would not actually do that if these were your children If you were a parent you would understand.

Now i dont support him not using legal means to try to get his children back. But we dont know the whole story there are pieces missing and the Japanese police had every right to arrest him according to Japans laws. This is not the first case of a child being taken to Japan only to have the other parent never see them again because a foreigner has no parental rights in Japanese law. Im not sure why this particular case has come forward but i have read hundreds of cases like these its not new. I hope some help comes to the father im sure he is grieving over his children over the situation in general. I want to hear the whole story though im hoping more info acquired later.

There are a few new pieces to the puzzle:
Father, kids in custody case Japanese citizens, officials say - CNN.com

Apparently the father had been living in Japan for quite some time (I guess you can not get naturalized through marriage alone?), and had stated a permanent address in Tokyo. And they never had divorced in Japan, only in the USA.

Unfortunately it doesn't say how long they actually lived in Japan as a family/how long they actually lived in the USA. That would be something really interesting,and big part of forming an opinion about the case for me personally.

Sounds too confuseing to me. Even though I have relatives in Japan through marriage as well, it's on my mom's side someplace, second cousin I think. Come to think of it, I have relatives in Switzerland and Britian as well as the US..

It's a personal dispute of somesort. It's also not something I would wish to venture into.