Both citizens and foreigners alike have certain rights in Japan that can help them when looking for their children, trying to get visitation rights, or just trying to make sure their children are alright when the custodial parent wont allow access.  Although these rights may be described elsewhere, this page highlights rights that may be particularly useful.

Freedom of Information Act - Enacted in 1999

1. •The Freedom of Information Act in both English and Japanese. 
   

2. •Summary of the main points of the law in English (cached copy) and in Japanese (cached copy)
   

3. •Diagram of how to system.  (English only) 
   

4. •Implementation rules (Japanese only)
   

5. •Usage Data (4/1/01-9/30/01) and contact information for a real person  Japanese only (cached copy)
   

6. •Information Clearinghouse Japan  English  Japanese
   

7. •Report by the Japan Information Access Project on Japan's Freedom of Information Act - English only (cached copy)
   

8. •Website of Administrative Management Bureau (Gyousei Kanri Kyoku)  of the Ministry of Internal Affair and Communications (Somusho), who administers this law.
   

9. •A good article on the fight for this law in Japan.  (This article needs more evaluation and breakout of useful information.  In particular, there may be other good info site, activist organizations, and people to contact in here.  See toward end of the article.)
   

10. •FOI Laws in Asia.  (I think there is a Japanese web site for this in here somewhere also.)
    

Other information disclosure laws - For now, all I can say is that these exist in 90% of the local governments.  See this article for a little information.

1. •90% of local gov'ts have info disclosure ordinances; Japan Today; July 23, 2003.   Survey about local ordinances for information disclosure. ( cached copy )
   

2. •Local Government Disclosure Systems in Japan.  An article and PDF file.  (LOOK INTO MORE.)
   

Article 14 of the Japanese Constitution

1. •More details on this non-discrimination law later.  For now, see the Japanese Constitution itself on our Japanese Laws page.