FRANKLIN, Tenn. — An American father arrested in Japan for snatching his children from his ex-wife there had previously urged a Tennessee judge to keep them from leaving the United States after his ex-wife expressed concern about the two children losing their Japanese identity.
Nashville-area technology executive Christopher Savoie, 38, was arrested Monday as he tried to enter the U.S. Consulate in Fukuoka with the children. Police said he had grabbed the 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter as they walked with their mother to their new school in the southern Japanese city.
Divorced fathers in Japan typically don’t get much access to their children because of widespread cultural beliefs that small children should be with their mothers.
Savoie had tried for a year to persuade a judge in Tennessee that his ex-wife, Noriko, was likely to flee the U.S. with their children, divorce records said.
The documents obtained Wednesday outline his attempts to restrict his ex-wife’s ability to travel with the kids, and her unhappiness with living in Franklin, Tenn., a Nashville suburb.
In a February e-mail, his ex-wife expressed her struggles in the U.S. He offered it to the court as proof she was threatening to leave:
“It’s very difficult to watch kids becoming American and losing Japanese identity,” she wrote. “I am at the edge of the cliff. I cannot hold it anymore if you keep bothering me.”
On Aug. 13, Savoie learned that his children were gone when their school called to tell him they were absent.
Now in jail in Japan, Savoie told CNN in an interview that he wants his children to know he loves them.
“I didn’t do anything wrong. Children have the right to see both parents. It’s very important for my children to know both parents,” Savoie told CNN.
Japan has declined to sign the 1980 Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, which seeks to ensure that custody decisions are made by the appropriate courts and that the rights of access of both parents are protected.
Tokyo has argued that the Hague Convention could hinder its ability to shield Japanese women and their children fleeing abusive foreign husbands.
That stance has begun to raise concern abroad, following a recent spate of incidents involving Japanese mothers taking their children back to the country and refusing to let their foreign ex-husbands visit them. The United States, Canada, Britain and France issued a joint statement in May urging Japan to address the problem.
“Japan is an important partner and friend of the U.S., but on this issue we have quite different points of view,” said David Marks, U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tokyo.
Court records in Tennessee indicate the Savoies lived in Japan from 2001 to 2008, and that Savoie obtained Japanese citizenship.
He first asked a court in Tennessee to block a possible abduction in October 2008 during divorce proceedings, and a Williamson County judge ordered Noriko Savoie to turn the children’s passports over to the court clerk.
Soon after their divorce was final in January 2009, he again asked for help from the courts, seeking primary custody of the children or an assurance that his ex-wife would not flee with them. He turned over the February e-mail from his ex-wife as evidence that she might leave the country with them.
But in April, a judge held that Noriko Savoie could take the children to Japan for a vacation. In the order, the judge wrote that “this court fully recognizes Father’s concerns regarding Japanese law and the protection of his rights. However, Mother has clearly testified that she intends to remain in Franklin, Tennessee, with the children.”
Noriko Savoie was given the passports. She took the children on vacation and returned as scheduled. But two weeks later, they were gone again. Williamson County Clerk and Master Elaine Beeler said there was no court order requiring the mother to return the children’s passports after the vacation.
Savoie has remarried. His wife, Amy, said she understood that her husband could be facing serious charges.
“It’s terrible, it’s terrible,” she said. “But thank you, thank you for everyone’s prayers and concerns.”
Savoie is chief executive officer of Franklin-based Tazzle Inc., which makes data-sharing devices for BlackBerry mobile phones. The company has an office in Tokyo that oversees manufacturing in Asia, according to the company’s Web site.
He previously founded and ran Tokyo-based pharmaceutical company GNI Ltd., according to court filings. Savoie moved back to the United States in January 2008 and Noriko Savoie and the children moved here in June of that year. Divorce proceedings began soon after.
Tokyo is aware of the need to address the divorce issue and is considering joining the Hague convention, said Kosei Nomura, a Foreign Ministry official in charge of international law. He said at least 70 such cases are in dispute between Japan and the U.S., but the government does not have an exact number.
Because of Japan’s stance, U.S. court rulings in the past have decided in favor of keeping children in the country, saying American parents would otherwise lose all their custody rights.
After the abduction, a Williamson County court gave Christopher Savoie full custody of the children in his wife’s absence. The courts also issued an arrest warrant for Noriko Savoie.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen’s office has not been contacted and has not become involved in the case, a spokeswoman said.
Japan has had close ties to Tennessee since Nissan built its first U.S. manufacturing plant in suburban Nashville in the early 1980s. Nissan relocated its North American headquarters from California to Franklin in 2006, and the Japanese consulate for five southern states was moved from New Orleans to Nashville early last year.
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