American Dad in Japanese Jail "Frightened"

Chris Savoie, Who Tried to Reclaim His Children in a Custody Dispute, Looking "Unwashed" and "Haggard" Behind Bars

(CBS)  American dad Chris Savoie has said he's "very frightened" after more than a week being held with drug users and hardened criminals in a Japanese jail, according to CBS News Tokyo producer Lucy Craft.

Craft obtained an off-camera interview with Chris, of Tenn., who is sitting behind bars in Japan because he tried to reclaim his two children who were taken in a custody dispute.

"We weren't able to get very much detail," Craft said. "He wasn't allowed to talk about it. But he did say that he was very frightened because he's being housed with suspects in violent crime."

Craft, speaking from Tokyo, noted Chris' hair was unwashed and had a lot of stubble on his chin. She told his wife, Amy Savoie, in New York, her husband looked "disheveled" and "haggard" from his stay in the jail. Craft said Chris is also having trouble sleeping because the lights in the jail are always on.

Craft said, "I think he's struggling to keep his spirits up, both because the conditions in the jail are quite difficult, and also because he faces the very real prospects of a stiff prison sentence."

To Amy Savoie, who heard for the first time of her husband's condition in jail, the update was "depressing."

"This is not a criminal matter. This is a family matter," Amy said.

Chris's ex wife Noriko abducted 8-year-old Isaac and 6-year-old Rebecca and brought them to Japan in August. Last week, Chris grabbed the kids near their school. He was making a run for the U.S. consulate, but Japanese police arrested him.

Shannon Higgins, Chris' friend told CBS News, "He kept saying, 'What's going on here? What is going on? This can't be right. What legal basis do they have?"

And legal concerns are also on Amy's mind, as well.

She told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez, "For years and years Japan has been telling victims of parental abduction that parental abduction is not a crime. Scores and scores and scores of families have had to suffer through this same kind of heartbreak where a parent kidnaps the children to Japan and Japan protects those parents. And when the distraught families go over there to try to enforce some kind of visitation or some custody order where they were granted full custody, or at least joint custody, Japan has turned them away and said, 'Sorry, parental abduction is not a crime.' So if parental abduction is not a crime, why is my husband in jail?"

Craft said Chris' defense attorney said the Japanese court will treat this as a criminal case, and will not involve the State Department nor the Japanese government.

However, Craft added Chris' attorney noted, the prosecution has to take into consideration this is not a normal kidnapping case, and that perhaps some leniency will be shown.

CBS News efforts to reach Chris' ex-wife were unsuccessful.

CBS News tracked down Noriko's parents' home where Craft said she believes Noriko and the children were staying up until last Monday. She said there was no sign of them at all. She added, after approaching both Noriko's mother and her father at their barber shop Tuesday morning, both refused to talk to CBS News.

"They told us to leave," Craft said. "So I'm sorry to say, they're probably in hiding somewhere."

Now Chris is waiting to see whether he will face trial or be sent home. Craft said he could spent two more weeks in the jail, as prosecutors decide how to proceed with his case.

Amy said she hopes her husband will be on a plane headed home very soon.

[asuiouwq]

Also, this will help you to understand the law:
http://elib.doshisha.ac.jp/cgi-bin/retrieve/sr_bookview.cgi/U_CHARSET.utf-8/BD00012943/Body/028003300011.pdf

[asuiouwq]

"Sorry, parental abduction is not a crime.' So if parental abduction is not a crime, why is my husband in jail?"

I'll answer the question for you.

Please read Japanese law translated into English:
http://eiyaku.hounavi.jp/taiyaku/m40a04502.php#Article+226

"Article 226(Kidnapping for Transportation out of a Country)

?A person who kidnaps another by force or enticement for the purpose of transporting another from one country to another country shall be punished by imprisonment with work for a definite term of not less than 2 years. "

This Japanese father might stay in the jail for 2 years in Japan.

Also, I heard that there were 4 guys to help to kidnap the two kids. They might have to stay in the jail too because they basically help the kidnap. However, mostlikely, they ship back to US because those guys are not Japanese citizen.

[thankyoufairy]

Chrisopher Savoie is a Japanese citizen. He married a Japanese citizen and they had two children with Japanese passports. He convinced his wife to come to the U.S. and served her with divorce papers the day after he arrived after refusing to give her a divorce in Japan a year earlier. His move to the U.S. was all about circumventing the Japanese legal system, which I assume he understood before he denounced his U.S. citizenship. I'm not sure why the case was heard in a U.S. family court in the first place since neither father nor mother were U.S. citizens. I have absolutely no sympathy for Mr. Savoie. He isn't stupid (Ph.D/M.D. and now in law school) and he isn't ignorant of Japanese culture or customs since he lived there extensively and speaks the language fluently. He wants it all, his Japanese children, his new wife, life on his terms. His arrogance is unbelievable.
I'm not Japanese. However, I've visited the country and while it has its own problems, I'm not sure we have better ideas in the U.S. I can understand the mother's concerns about the children losing their national identity. I had culture shock when I returned to the states after a relatively short visit; I can imagine what it would be like for a woman who lived her entire life in Japan.
This man knew the consequences of a failed marriage with children in the country of his choice and he pursued an extramarital affair anyway. He also knew the consequences of taking the children off the streets of Japan. If he has to spend ten days in a Japanese jail, I hardly believe it is any worse than spending ten days in some of our American prisons.

[MrReasonable]

I have no sympathy for anyone who has the insane desire to have children with a partner from another country especially when that persons entire life and family are still in their native country. Why would a US citizen want to go to Japan to have a family with a Japanese woman. Did he think she would leave her life and family to move to a foreign country to live with him. She wants to stay home with her family and her children. This guy is as dumb as those woman who marry men from the middle east and then cry when they go back home with there children. Find someone in your own country! Or suffer the consequences. And when Japan says Parental Abduction is not a crime, they are referring to Parents returning home to Japan with their children. Not people trying to kidnap them from Japan and take them out of the country.

[MontgomeryDad]

I?m not sure this news story tells enough for the reader to be convinced whether or not there was some circumstance to say that the imprisonment was justified or not. However, there are many other stories about similar circumstances in Japan, though fewer where the father went this far, in western media from the past 15 years.

I think its occurrence reflects a broken legal system with regard to custody and visitation. In Japan, their cultural dogma that the parent without physical custody should not see the child once a divorce has started prevails, or at least, is widely accepted. The personal case of former Prime Minister Koizumi is an example, and he even violated his own promise to allow visitation to his former wife after their divorce.

On the one hand, Japan discourages visitation during a divorce, by not providing for it, or certainly not in a reasonable quantity, and on the other hand a Japanese parent will abduct his or her children to settle the custody issue. Parental child abduction during the divorce is regarded as a family matter and supposedly out of reach of the legal system. However, it is because of this abduction potential, that visitation, if it occurs at all, is extremely limited and overly guarded. This is certainly is bound to bias the child against the parent without physical custody.

A word Japanese will use for visitation is ?interview? and I think that captures an all too common Japanese view of what visitation is. This is not to say there is not some variation in their attitudes. Probably most Americans both want to and also have a responsibility to be part of their child?s life. I think most Americans would take offense at being offered a mere interview rather than visitation with their child.

From what I have read, Japanese enforcement of compliance with child support is pretty poor and results in about only one third of the required amount being paid. I think this is a result of lack of real visitation after the divorce and is more evidence of a broken system.

Because Japan is not a party to the Hague Abduction Convention it is difficult, if not impossible, to get an abducted child back from Japan. Abiding by this convention would be another way they could improve their fairness.

[umatilla]

I understand they were married in Japan the children were born in japan. He moved his wife to america away from her family and then cheated on her and they seperated. She had the right to move back to Japan where her family was. the judge here had no authorty to give him full custidy after she took children back home, he should have kept his nose out of it.

[mistynette]

Not only the children were born in Japan, but they have lived in Japan
until 08. Savoie made her and the children to move to the US so he can
divorce her, keep the children and remarry his ex-mistress.
CBS, PLEASE do better job on this news!!

[mitsuko1984]

Noriko and Christopher were married for 14 years in Japan. He went back to USA by himself first, and had affair with Amy for 6 months. His lover Amy got divorced from her husband to be with Christopher. Noriko and her kids were asked to come to the USA. Noriko was served with divorce paper soon after she and children arrived in the US. She needed to go to English language school and fend for herself against Christopher and his lawyer, and continuous criticism from Amy. Noriko felt trapped. She is not familiar with legal system here. Those facts are available. CBS should show Noriko's side of story by investigating what has been really going on.

[dnamj]

One more reason to avoid having kids in the first place.

[tx2009]

Why the US media is reluctant to report that Mr.Savoie is also a Japanese citizen? He became a naturalized Japanese citizen 4 years ago.
This can be a potential problem in Japan, since Japan doesn't permit dual citizenship.

[timothyjo]

hopeflly this clown will pay a price he took law in his own hands ,kids were born japan he cheated on wife caused divorce and now big cry baby is acting like a b---- after he gets cot what a loser.please

[miami_don]

Wrong!!! His wife kidnapped the childred from the US. She fled over international boundries and committed a federal crime. She is the one that broke the law...or do you think Japanese law is more important than US law? If you do and you are as I suspect from somewhere else; go home you are here as a guest.