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Americans Seek to Adopt Japanese Earthquake Orphans

Fox News reports on how some Americans are seeking to adopt Japanese children who were orphaned by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. It seems that their requests will be turned down:

“I have been receiving many strange emails, from mostly U.S., and was asked, ‘I want girl, less than 6 months old, healthy child,’ Tazuru Ogaway, director of the Japanese adoption agency Across Japan, told FoxNews.com. “I honestly tell you such a kind of emails makes Japanese people very uncomfortable, because for us, sound like someone who are looking for ‘what I want’ from our terrible disaster.”

In the wake of the massive January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, countries around the world almost immediately began fast-tracking adoptions from the troubled country. The United States alone took in 1,090 Haitian children as part of a Special Humanitarian Parole granted immediately following the disaster, according to the State Department’s 2010 Annual Report in Intercountry Adoptions.

But Martha Osborne, spokeswoman for the adoption advocacy website RainbowKids.com, said Japan and Haiti couldn’t be more different when it comes to adoption.

“You see that in developing nations, there’s no outlet for these children and the people left in the wake of the disaster are completely impoverished and unable to care for them, and in that case even extended relatives often say that the best case for the child is to be adopted because there are no resources,” Osborne told FoxNews.com. “But in Japan that’s just not the case, it’s a fully developed nation that’s capable of caring for its own children.”

However, that does not mean that Japan doesn’t have orphans who need a home. As the Tiger Mask gift-giving stories illustrated earlier this year, there are still thousands of children in Japan who live in orphanages and child welfare facilities. Not every child has extended family available and willing to provide care.

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43 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - March 23, 2011 at 10:26 am

Categories: General Japan Tags:

http://www.jadij.com Blue Shoe

Yes, but Japanese orphans are Japanese. They belong in Japan. /sarc

Greengreen

There is something to be said for the fact that these children, having already undergone an extremely traumatic experience, do not need the further trauma of having to move to a new country, with strangers, where they don’t speak the language, leaving them little or no connection to the families they have lost. I think all avenues for placing them with extended family or with families within Japan should be explored before sending them out of the country.

Hamachiman

I agree with the last paragraph.

But I feel that many people around the world still echo Osborne’s sentiments, that because Japan is such a ‘developed’ and economically powerful nation, that somehow it is less deserving of aid and sympathy.

Of course that’s not true in all cases, many people from average citizens from around the world, to celebrities such as Sandra Bullock, have opened their hearts and wallets to Japan.

But you do get a sense that somehow a more ‘rich’ nation deserves less aid and sympathy than a third world one.

That is why you don’t see the likes of George Clooney in a televised telethon a la Haiti. By the way George, with those commercials and appearances in Japan, would it have hurt to make some form of statement or give something to the people of Japan?
Piglet

There is a common belief here (and some other Asian countries) that blood relationships are fundamental and that adoption should preferably be done by a blood relative (uncle, etc…). Therefore, there is a cultural reticence to allow big scale adoption. Many orphans live in orphanages without much hope to be adopted by a family. At best, they can hope to go to a foster family, but it is still quite uncommon. My wife and I have been thinking for a while to become foster parents, and I was shocked to hear than less than 10 kids were placed in foster families in our area.
http://www.onivoro.com.br Isaac Kojima

Yeah, any country has its orphans, but e-mails like the one above give me goose bumps.

Greengreen

Agreed, it gives one the feeling that they’re waiting around to capitalize on the disaster somehow, because there are plnety of children in the world needing homes at any time, not just in bad times.

Asian

These Americans just want cute, Asian kids so they can watch them get 100 on tests and play piano. For them, it’s like buying a pet.

Piglet

There are also many people who are looking to raise a family and love a kid, independently of race, religion or social background. There are so many orphans in the world, I don’t know it would be a bad thing to provide them with a loving family, unless you believe in the old-school racist rationale that blood is more important than anything else.

sTiKy

Except they do think race is important, just the opposite race of old-school adoption. For some adopting an African baby or a south-east Asian baby is almost like a fashion statement. Please tell me, if these people didn’t care about race then why were they specifically asking for Japanese orphans? Evidently blood is more important to them, just the kind of blood that makes them look like hip humanitarians.

Comment

For all anyone knows some of “These Americans” may themselves be of Japanese, or any of a number of other Asian, heritages. Are they still racists?
Tina

Dear Piglet,
I am American. My oldest son married a 100% Japanese wife although she is 2nd generation American. They have been trying to have a child for 7 years now. It is heartbreaking and they have so much to give but are not wealthy. I assure you, their child would not be just a pet. Not all Americans who would like children are bad. This child would be so loved, piano or not.

Rick

A lot of American’s are simply ignorant of the difficulties in adopting from Japan. It isn’t easy by and stretch. My wife (who is native Japanese) and I looked into this when we found that we couldn’t have kids of our own. We could do an adoption but the cost and complexity made it impractical for us. Instead we are currently pursuing adoption within the US.

Unfortunately some people are just a bit to desperate and try to take advantage any situation to try an adopt a child. I kinda know where they are coming from but they really need read the situation better and act more sensitivity.

K Marx

What does ‘being American’ or ‘Japanese’ have to do with anything?

The fetishes are ‘insulted’ of their favourite ethnic group leaving Japan.

I cannot comment about adoptions, but I favour brown-eyed white Europeans.

http://www.billowykimono.com Senor Science

If they’re anything like my cousin they just want a baby to treat like a damn living dress up doll. =I

In all honesty, I think adopting a Japanese child who’s been in the Japanese education system for a few years would be terribly traumatic to the child. I can see them being incessantly teased by other American students and being thrown into an education system that is completely unlike anything they’ve experienced. They’re better off staying in Japan and either be raised by the state or by foster families.

ryand

Sunshine, I was “raised by the state or by foster families”, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. People who go into that industry – and it is an industry – have a delusion that merely intending to be altruistic qualifies one to be such. False. What they wind up doing is following their own biological predestiny and attacking the children that they’re supposedly caring for, but that instinct tells them are competition. In spite of my own experiences, I still believe there are people out there who’re able to properly care for other peoples’ children. If you want to figure out who they are; look for the ones’ who are skeptical about their own capacity for useful altruism.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr. S.

“Such a kind of emails makes Japanese people very uncomfortable, because for us, sound like someone who are looking for ‘what I want’ from our terrible disaster.” He’s pinned the tail on N.American narcissism hasn’t he. Still, I have mixed feelings.

I’ve taught adopted Chinese girls in Canada, and though the parents I’ve met have been nothing but well-intentioned, I think they are at least a little misguided. First, as good a parent as you may be, it’s another case of the ‘first world’ poaching from the ‘third’ (or Japan’s disaster, in this case); second, not everyone is well-intentioned, as the risk of child abduction from Aceh for the sex trade showed; third, people see race first, so your child will quickly learn that people do not naturally associate them with their parents, giving them yet one more thing to resent than your average adolescent; fourth, in the case of China and other countries, just who is getting the $40K or so you are spending on ‘adoption’, and how is that not buying a child? Also a class-issue.

On the other hand, all children deserve the best home possible, which will usually be with a close relative; however, it is true that there are things broken in Japanese child-welfare, family-law system, and cultural attitudes: what other modern nation has orphanages?

The best way out of this? No fee for adoption placement, period. The agencies which jumped in already should be shut down in their own countries, and the agents within adoptive countries which charge any kind of fee should be prosecuted. If you want a child, you should have to pay for the benefit: to a charity which will raise or place several children within the original country, making many children win.

Still conflicted, but people who are not conflicted tend to do the most evil.

ateaaw

God bless America. And you’re comment I completely agree with. In disasters such as this, children are often the worse victims, being defenseless and not having much of a say in things. I do like the idea of many children winning.
http://twitter.com/Karina1003 Karina1003

Still, the orphanages in Japan aren’t 19th century Dickensian places. Maybe Western culture thinks it’s wrong to have orphanages in 2011, but Japan is a different country. Different doesn’t mean bad. Let Japan do this in accordance to it’s own laws and culture and situation, please.
http://twitter.com/Karina1003 Karina1003

Still, the orphanages in Japan aren’t 19th century Dickensian places. Maybe Western culture thinks it’s wrong to have orphanages in 2011, but Japan is a different country. Different doesn’t mean bad. Let Japan do this in accordance to it’s own laws and culture and situation, please.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirkira

Nothing wrong with wanting to adopt a child, but there is a very creepy level to all this.
It seems just as predatory as some of the news reports.
Especially when you see demands like

I want girl, less than 6 months old, healthy child

… would you like to specify her eye color too? I mean, are they looking for a child to adopt or buying a car?
http://www.zdwonline.de Haf

My Japanese teachers also received calls with similar requests from a few German women. We all agreed that these calls were rather weird. If you want to adopt a child, do it through official channels.
Tina

I am an older person and well travelled. Not once have I heard of any child having an even “nice” childhood in the foster care system/orphanges in any country. The last statement in the article says there are thousands of children in orphanages in Japan. Adoption by family is always better, if you are loved. I have to wonder how many are just taken in by family out of obligation and tradition. Yes, it is creepy when one tries to order a child as if at a fast food restaurant. Friends of mine have adopted Chinese,Russian and Guatamalan babies as well at great expence. In America it can be even more expensive though. Adoption in our own country is messed up. I have heard of couples scrutinized harshly for years and by the time they get the child he/she is 2 or 3 years older than when they started. During all this time the child has been neglected. You can’t say this never happens in Japan. Correct me if I’m wrong. The message I’m getting here from what I’m reading from these posts is that the Japanese prefer these children grow up without a family to love and keeping them in orphanages is simply a pride issue. The idea that Japanese children out-perform other races is ill. The idea that children of any race have happier childhoods in orphanages because they are with their own race is so sad.
These children have lost everything and must start all over and recover with strangers regardless. I think the majority of people who want to adopt Japanese children are with huge hearts and are not represented in this article. I think the majority who want them are the same folks who adopted from Indonisia during that disaster. I think these are the people who like I, would adopt and love every child of every nation who needed them if it were possible. To single out a few weidos and say they represent all Americans who wish to adopt is not fair at all. I have wittnessed these friends children adopted from other countries grow up and thrive, score 100 on tests and yes, play piano and they are not Japanese. Get my drift?

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

By and large the people commenting here are not Japanese but foreigners living in Japan or with an interest in Japan. The target audience is generally foreigners residing in Japan.
So your feelings about pride are unfounded.

Taking a child out of one culture and transplanting them into a completely different culture in the midst of tragedy and mourning is going to have negative effects, regardless of the child’s race. Race has nothing to do with it.
Having a family is good, but at what cost to the child’s psychology?
You seem to be putting the want for certain parents to adopt outside their own country, where there are plenty of orphans, above considering the childrens situation. Just saying “it’s all for the children” doesn’t make it so.

M-Bone

Should really look into just what these Tiger Mask related child welfare facilities are before continuing this discussion on these lines – children there include teens who have been abused but are still attending the same schools that they always have and children of a single parent who is hospitalized (a temporary arrangement). These facilities include kids up to age 18. The average stay is fewer than 5 years, suggesting that this is a temporary solution for troubled families, that many children are adopted in Japan or returned to family. The facilities include sophisticated counselling infrastructure and they seem well run. A major goal is to reunite children with parents or family, even if they have been abandoned.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr. S.

“A major goal is to reunite children with parents or family”: same as it is in Canada, and I think that is a wrong focus. It should always be for the best long-term interests of the child, which though often “is to reunite children with parents or family”, certainly is often not so, as I have seen as a teacher. And the earlier the adoption is done, so long as adoption is in the child’s best interests, the better for that child.

M-Bone

But then how do you tell a parent that their child has been sent overseas to a vastly different linguistic and cultural environment? Or if a child has been abused, do you potentially compound trauma by ripping them out of their environment?

M-Bone

Am I the only one thinking that the “I want to adopt” crowd just don’t get the tsunami? Under what circumstances would a child under 5 (or even 10) survive a 12 meter tall wave without their parents? People are thinking about adopting before relatives have even started to get details about loved ones or before bodies are found? This screams “baby rush” to me. Sick.
Kalinin

Don’t give these kids to americans, let Japan try to solve it by themselves. Americans should care more about adopting the kids in their own country. Why do they want a japanese kid that is in the other side of the world instead of a black kid that is in their own cities?! I will not even answer this question or you’ll have to delete my comment.
Ap

“Ogaway”; congratulations retarded fox news for not being able to properly transcribe.
Terry

just another form of human trafficking if you ask me. Let’s stop it in its tracks.
Nate

How about these Americans adopt inner city orphans? Look inside America before looking at other countries.
Zero

Japan is better off than most people think, so leave Japanese children in japan because honestly with the racism in America they would be better off with there people. It’s not like other countries tried to adopt orphans from Katrina.
britling

No doubt some of these people are Christians wanting to save the children of atheistic/satanic/fascistic/communist/socialist Japan.
Tina

Mr. S I agree. It was the law in Ohio and some other states that abused children should be incorporated back into the home. It didn’t work. The children were further abused. They finally got the message and changed the stupid law. Britling, I don’t believe that’s true. The couple I’m thinking of..American Japanese are Buddists. Zero, many children were placed from Katrina. As a matter of fact, many Americans housed Katrina victims all over this country, literally. Yes, there is racism here unfortunately. Every country has it’s problems. Many countries still have a “caste” system. Many believe women should still be stoned and be mens slaves. At least we don’t have that here. The world is a harsh place. That’s why family is so important for many reasons. There is no such thing as perfection in this world. We have a Japanese campus here and they seem to adapt fine. I see white families with black children more and more all the time. This country is changing, not fast enough, but I have seen it. I do not live in the South though. They are very different than the rest of the country and it’s sad. But we live in a country where women are not worried about female casteration. I love Japan. Please don’t get me wrong but they have their problems as well. Ruthless gangs. The sex trade, minor prostitution and child porn are rampant. It would be interesting to know the statistics of success of their orphans once their out of the system. No country deserves what has happened in Japan. No one is missing the horror of what they are going through. People rush to adopt in any country that has had such disasters and Japan is no exception. It’s about the children!!! You people seem to want to catagorize every in one big bundle of opportunists and negative intents. Shame on you. It’s like you are saying a country with an evil dictator has nothing but evil people living there. You really think because there are some racists we all are? I believe the majority of Americans are not racist. I do not have, not one, I have ever known in my town that has been racist. I have heard of them but never met one. Terry, so you think it’s merely human trafficking. So you are just goading me. You need to look up the survival rate of a Russian baby in an ophanage there. So they make money off perpective parents. So. The child is saved. Japan will rise up again. It will take many years. In the meantime, it’s people and children are suffering and that’s all that matters.

http://theinconvenienttruthonwhaling.blogspot.com/ kujirakira

I love Japan. Please don’t get me wrong but they have their problems as well. Ruthless gangs. The sex trade, minor prostitution and child porn are rampant

So let’s not stereotype people who want to adopt children from foreign countries.
But you’ll use stereotypes of the country in question to make a point?
What’s with the multiple references to female castration, stoning, etc.? What does that have to do with this?
If you’ve never met a racist, I find that very hard to believe. Some people seem to think racism is this great evil that is limited to groups like the KKK. It’s not. It’s widespread, and rarely ever manifested in the volatile ways of past decades (like lynchings). It’s in Japan, it’s in America, and it is widespread. People harbor resentment all the time. They’ve just learned to act on it less and to find better excuses for it on the surface.
Saying you’ve never known somebody with racism strikes me immediately as somebody who would not even be capable of understanding the situation such a transplanted child would be in.
Children who’ve gone through a crisis like this aren’t magically “saved” just by having a roof over their head or 3 meals a day. You seem to live in a world where the children are adopted into white picket fence homes and it’s like a fairytale.
Nor are you likely to find a child whose not already been immersed in Japanese culture.
Let’s flip the situation around a bit. Let’s say an 8yr old boy from LA is orphaned. He’s very individualistic, smart-mouthed, and more interested in playing video games after school — like a lot of boys his age. Now transplant him to Japan, where he’s expected to keep his mouth shut, abide by the rules, transplanted into a class that has already spent years together forming “goals” they made themselves, and he’s expected to spend his time after school in school clubs or cram classes. And this doesn’t even account for the tragedy of how he lost his parents and family.

Do you know the meaning of culture shock? Adults get culture shock all the time. I can’t imagine a child going through Institutionalized Culture Shock via radically different school and social structures in the midst of mourning such a tragedy.

Explain to me again how this is “for the children” and not just “for the parents because it’s cheaper and more convenient**” ???

**Or so they’re assuming. I guarantee Japan has 1000 times more bureaucratic red tape than they can imagine.

Nexu

Oh no, don’t take advantage of the situation to steal the few kids they have.

Demography is a big problem in Japan and these children must stay in their home country and be adopted by Japanese.
Sinenomine

I think these parents need to put it in perspective. The next time there is a major earthquake in California, what would they think of Japanes families calling adoption agencies and saying “I want girl, less than 6 months old, healthy child”.

It’s not “wrong” per se, but it’s very awkward and kind of condescending.
Karina

Why is that whenever these things happen in other countries, the first thing some Americans think is ‘I have to adopt them’? Such mentalities make me sick.
In these situations, adoption from a foreign national should be the absolute LAST resort. Not the first.
First you make sure if there’s any living relatives (even relatives that are distant) within the country that can take care of the child. Adoption could be an option in some cases but Japanese families should the first and main priority.

Americans, stop rushing to adopt foreign kids in these disasters! In some cases, many Japanese orphans in this disaster will probably have an adult relative that can take care of the child. (Demographically, we already have fewer children in this country than ever before…we don’t need people from other countries rushing to adopt them en masse.
Jess

Whenever Americans adopt Asian babies, they never seem to want to adopt boys.
Susansalvation

My daughter and her young family may be able and willing to take in a needy orphan.Is there a number,or website, that basically,does it all? We are all very busy people.She will be attending medical school soon,so I do not know if an older child would be preferred since they have an infant son now.We are Christians and are tight knit group.It would be lovely for a child teach our grandson another language.Thanks.

http://twitter.com/Karina1003 Karina1003

I don’t think that would be necessary—the Japanese are perfectly capable of taking care of their own children, and many of these children may have relatives in Japan that can take care of them. Japan already has fewer children than ever before—please allow these children to stay in their own culture and be Japanese in Japan. How would you feel if a major disaster hit your country, yet other first world countries were demanding to adopt orphans, even though your country is probably capable of taking care of it’s own? You wouldn’t feel good about that, right? Japan is not Haiti.

Rayne001

I just wanted to add,I’m a New Zealand born woman who has lived in Australia for over 20 years.I have 5 wonderful sons,their ages are 18,16,13,12 and 2.I also have custody of my nephew who is also 12 due to his mothers involvement with drugs and prison.My husband is half kiwi /half Aussie, my nephew is half kiwi/half Samoan.I haven’t been blessed with a daughter and have considered adoption.I have thought about adopting a Japanese girl because I love Japan,I love the Japanese people,I love the language,I love their customs, the way they love and respect each other,the way they come together in the face of disaster(no matter what kind).I would never want to insult Japan by thinking I can just come up and buy one of their children,or it’s people, because i dream of having a daughter.The cost for adoptions are unbelievable,Even if I am unable to adopt,I still love Japan and its beautiful people.Has anyone asked the children what they want,If I were to adopt (regardless of race,creed or gender)I would hate to find out that the child that had been placed in my care didn’t want to be adopted,or for whatever reason didn’t want to be adopted by me.I would never force a child,I hope they have as much say in the decisions made for their life as the adults do!!!
Thetravelingmuse

I live in Japan… i have lived here for about 6 years. I dont plan on leaving Japan anytime soon and I do love the kids here but even i would hesitate at adopting a kid in Japan because the kid would be with a “foreigner” and not part of Japanese society as they would be with a japanese parent. Also, I dont think these kids should leave Japan. I wouldnt want some creepy Christian family trying to “save” these kids. I have seen the outreach programs from America to Japan and most of them are just narcissistic Christian groups who think that their way is THE WAY. Japanese people dont care for religion at all and I think that is another reason why they dont want their kids to go to America where everything is the complete OPPOSITE of Japan.

Americans Seek to Adopt Japanese Earthquake Orphans

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