Recent Trends of Divorce and Custody in Japan

In Japan the percentage of divorces where the mother brings up the child has increased rapidly over the last 30 years from 40 percent to 75 percent. In these cases the responsibility of the father for financial support isvery obscure because more than 90 percent of all the divorces are "divorce by consent" on which no official check is imposed. Recently, in order to improve the situa- tion, the Japanese Ministry of Public Welfare has set up a commit- tee, which submitted a report containing some concrete guidelines.