Anaxagoras wrote: ↑Tue Mar 16, 2021 1:09 am
Even though I've been living here for 20 years now, there's still some things about Japan that I didn't know about.
Like this:
No consent from spouse needed for abortion in broken marriages in Japan: ministry
I take it that means that up until now, a woman did need her husband's permission to have an abortion (and still does if the marriage is not considered "broken"). In America, a woman doesn't need anyone's permission.
TOKYO -- Japan's health ministry has spelled out new administration guidelines to the Maternal Health Act, which would allow women whose marriages have effectively collapsed due to domestic violence and other reasons to undergo abortions without their spouse's consent.
There have been many cases in which women wanting abortions have been given the run around by multiple medical institutions or have been forced to give birth because they have been unable to provide their spouse's consent for an abortion. Because of this, support groups have been calling for a review in the administration of the law.
The Maternal Health Act stipulates that when carrying out an abortion, doctors must obtain the consent of the pregnant woman and her spouse. Even if the woman is not married, many medical institutions seek consent from the man believed to have impregnated the woman out of fear of lawsuits and other problems they may face with the man involved.
According to a 2017 survey conducted by the Cabinet Office, of 141 women who had been raped by men, 26.2% of the men were former spouses and 24.8% were former boyfriends. In response to the serious state of sexual domestic violence experienced by women, in February of this year the All Japan Women's Shelter Network, a nonprofit organization that assists domestic violence victims, submitted a request to the Japanese government seeking the elimination of the provision in the Maternal Health Act requiring the consent of the spouse for a woman to receive an abortion.
There's a few things like that about abortion here.
I may have this wrong, but off the top of my head, I want to say abortion is technically illegal.
But, as with many things in Japan, I believe there are "exceptions" before a certain date.
I also seem to remember reading somewhere that Japan was one of the go to countries back when hospital abortions were unavailable in the States.
On a related subject, I would take claims of "domestic violence" with a grain of salt.
Not saying it doesn't happen, but according to [someone I know] it is quite common when marriages break down in Japan for the wife to leave (usually going back to her parents), claim "abuse," and then ... here's the interesting part ... dig her heels in and refuse to divorce.*
"Abuse" justifies the wife's leaving, gains sympathy, etc. But, more importantly, if both sides do not consent, divorce can take a long time here -- years in some cases -- especially if the court wants to punish the husband for his "abuse," cheating, etc.
The way they do this is by ordering "family support" (which is often higher than what the ex-wife would receive post-divorce) while the case drags on and the court gives them a chance to "try to work things out."
I remember a case [someone I know] handled involving her friend, someone I had met prior to her divorce, who claimed "abuse" and demanded an exorbitant amount of "family support" but refused to divorce. All was going according to plan until ...
Well, let's just say a hypothetical husband hypothetically produced photos on various dates of hypothetical bruises and violent scratch marks all over
his body which a certain hypothetical client then wanted to try talk her way out of with everyone within earshot ...
Opps. That's what we lawyers like to call "bad facts."
Funny thing, after those photos came out and any chance of milking "family support" for years disappeared, the wife ... Opps, I mean, "hypothetical wife" didn't seem to want to "try to work things out" after all.
* My divorce did not follow this pattern. But that's a story for another day.