No, I just read what was in the post, but I find that surprising. Once I get Canadian citizenship for my daughter, if we're in Canada and my wife leaves, custody problems would be dealt with under Canadian laws, not Japanese laws. Although I have not verified this specifically, I feel fairly certain that it's the case; we're right in the middle of the procedures. Now if my daughter was stricly a Japanese living in Canada, then... American-Japanese accords in this matter may be different, though. Being right in the immigration process for my wife and daughter-to-be, I've been very thorough in my research. But then it comes down to who takes the child and leaves first. If the Japanese mother leaves, takes the child and manages to get back to Japan before she's intercepted by the authorities, since Japan didn't sign the Hague treaty on abducted children, well, it just becomes a legal mess...