Guest Post: Adoption in Japan

Some say it can’t be done, happily they are wrong

I’m thrilled to bring you this wonderful guest post today on a really important topic. It’s of personal interest as my wife and I are considering doing this in the future, and it’s something that most people don’t know much about. I’m a huge fan of Sean’s blog, so when he mentioned he had been through the procedures to register to adopt/foster children I begged him to write something for the blog. And here it is. Take it away Sean:

In early 2019 my wife and I decided that we wanted to become either foster parents or adopt a child here in Japan.

I’ve seen lots of comments on various websites about what the system is like, mostly from commenters that, I presume, haven’t been through the registration process. Although I’m no authority on the matter and will therefore avoid talking statistics here, I do want to talk about the actual registration and what was required of us. Throughout 2019 and early 2020 we went through all the necessary steps with the Aichi prefectural government. Ben became aware of this after I commented on one of his posts and asked me to write about the process. So that’s what I’ll aim to do here. Be aware, however, that each prefecture is different and that registration is only recognized in the prefecture where you undertook the training so our experience could well differ from yours if you choose to register.

Here are the steps that we took to register.

1. Attend a regional seminar

We began everything by attending a couple of all day seminars held by the prefectural government. The morning session started with talks about the system, remuneration for foster parenting (I was expecting nothing but that’s not the case) and basic law etc., followed by talks by parents about their experiences. In the afternoon there was a questions and answers session. I attended one seminar, while my wife attended two (when I was back in the UK visiting family). As these were organized by the prefecture all the seminars I mention were scattered throughout Aichi.

From what I’d read online regarding the apparent unpopularity of adopting or fostering in Japan I was expecting the attendance to be quite low but that was not the case. The room was almost full. There were around 50 – 60 people present at each seminar consisting of a mix of married couples of all ages as well as a large number of men and women in their late 50s and 60s wanting to raise more children and provide a home to needy children.

2. Visit your local child welfare centre

The next step was to visit our local child welfare centre for an informal interview with two child welfare officers to introduce ourselves and learn more about the registration process ahead. If everything went well (it did) we would be invited to officially apply.

3. Official interview

As the initial interview went well we were encouraged to officially apply so set a date for our formal interviews. These interviews were conducted by the same officers as previously but this time my wife and I were separated into different rooms and interviewed about our history, family, work, health, hobbies, and education etc. If we were successful in this interview (we were) we would continue on with the formal training.

4. Formal training

Steps 2 and 3 above took place between late spring and early summer 2019 but the formal prefectural training didn’t start until late autumn. These seminars were compulsory and although it was acceptable for only one of us to attend both of us attending was obviously better.

It is important that you do not miss any of these seminars because if you do you will have to wait until the following year to take the one you missed. That will slow down the registration process significantly. If you live near a major city then there may be separate seminars that you could possibly attend, as was our case when we took one seminar held by Nagoya city council. Check with your local child welfare office.

In total there were about five full days in which we learnt more about the registration process and adoption/fostering system, the national statistics, the law, local parent-run support groups, child education, dealing with that ‘difficult conversation’ sometime in the child’s future, and more. There were also group discussions. During a usual day there were 4 or 5 talks by a variety of speakers and after each one we had to write a short summary (hand written in Japanese) about what we had learnt. I wrote my reports on my iPad during the lunch breaks or after the seminars had finished and my wife quickly checked my grammar, then if we had time, I’d write the report out myself by hand or if we didn’t my wife would write it out instead.

Again, these seminars were extremely well attended which was contrary to what I’d read online. There seems to be plenty of Japanese couples interested in adopting or fostering, at least here in Aichi prefecture.

5. Paperwork

It’s Japan and that means ridiculous amounts of paperwork. This is what was needed:

• Police background check. We just signed a form given to us by the child welfare centre giving them permission to request a background check from the police.

• Financial check – last years tax return documents, approximate yearly income, remaining mortgage repayments, land tax documents, credit card debt (if applicable) etc.

• Health check – A general health check done by our local clinic to show that we were in good health. We also had to get tested for measles for our upcoming visit to a foster care home (see number 6 below).

• House plans – They wanted copies of our house and land plans.

• A hand written family tree – This still baffles me but I had to write out the name and address of my all my family members back in the U.K. I asked them why, got a vague reply, and a stern look from my wife telling me not to ruin this over something so trivial. So I shut up and did what I was told.

• Juminnhyo and a copy of my residence card etc. – Usually I would refuse to show anyone my residence card barring Immigration or the police, but as it’s the welfare of a child we were dealing with I made an exception (I had no choice).

6. Visit a local foster care home.

As part of the training we made two trips to a local foster care home. The first, in which I attended alone, only lasted about 40 minutes. This was an introduction to the care home and a brief orientation regarding a full day visit in the near future.

The second was much longer. To be allowed into the home for the main training we needed to get checked for measles. Once we got the all clear for that we spent a full day from 9am to 6pm with children aged between 6 months and 3 years. We played with them, changed nappies, fed them, everything you would expect. And of course once finished we had to write another report.

7. Home visit number 1

The welfare workers visited our home, we went through and checked all the paperwork again and they also took photos of our house. They photographed every room. It felt invasive but again, we are dealing with the welfare of a child and it’s their responsibility to make sure they are safe, so we were fine with it.

8. Home visit number 2

For the second and final visit to our home the officers were accompanied by the head of child welfare for our city. We introduced ourselves and were once again asked about our motivation for adopting and fostering. It was his job to submit our application officially to the prefectural government and he would have to give a brief talk about us. That took place in mid January and we would know the final results in mid March.

It’s now the end of March as I write this and yesterday we received official documents stating that we are now registered with Aichi government.

It was a long, challenging and tiring process but I expected no less from Japanese bureaucracy and as everything was done with the consideration of child welfare in mind we had no problems doing what was necessary.

We are now registered until 2024 when I believe once of us will have to take a refresher course. Remember, that if we move to another prefecture (we won’t) we’d have to go through the whole process again.

Now that it is all done we sit and wait (maybe a bit longer than usual under current circumstances). And after that is when the really hard work begins.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this for us, Sean. Best of luck with your adoption/fostering.

Does anyone else have experience with this? Any questions?