Transnational Divorce: The Violation of Immigrant Japanese Mothers' Rights an the Hague Abduction Convention

As a counterpoint to existing discussions of how Western fathers’ rights can be secured in the context of transnational divorce, this study raises the important question of how immigrant Japanese mothers’ fundamental rights can be protected. The voices of Japanese women have long been silenced in the context of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Through in-depth interviews with Japanese mothers who returned to Japan with their children (returned Japanese mothers), and divorced immigrant Japanese mothers who reside in Canada, this study analyzes the stories of the mothers in terms of the impact of immigration and transnational divorce on their social locations. Drawing on critical race scholarship, particularly interlocking theory, it critiques the Western construction of returned Japanese mothers as abductors and reveals the ways that their marginalization as non-English speaking, foreign-born women of colour is further entrenched through transnational divorce.