And The Father Is...?

This piece should be posted under the subheading of: Examples of J-logic.
Say you are Japanese. You and your husband are both Japanese.

You hate him. So, you break up and file for divorce.

you're increadibly gorgeous so its no problem to get a new guy. You fall in love and its just a case of waiting to get divorced before tying a new knot.

Congratulations you get divorced three months later. Its easy.

However, you forget to use condoms... or use Japanese ones (pretty much the same thing really - i guess i could do a piece on Japan's fertility plan using crap condoms).

You're pregnant. Congratulations.

299 days later you give birth to a healthy young boy. He has your new husband's eyes...

But guess who the legal father is?

Yep, your ex-husband who you haven't slept with for over a year.

The logic states that if a baby is born within 300 days of the granting of divorce and the now ex-wife giving birth then the father is automatically the previous husband.

DNA tests? forget that.

The fact that pregnancies take less than 300 days on average? That would be science...try another country.

Apparently, according to the Yomiuri shimbun, the Justice Minister is struggling for a way to help remarried women (what about unmarried ones who give birth?) register their children to the actual father.

How about common sense?

Under the present law the baby has to be registered in the father's family record. No such record seems to exist for women. Not very equal now. With the law stating that its the previous husband's baby means that the previous husband has to go to court to state that the baby is not his. Then it can be registered as the correct father's... complicated.

Considering 3,500 women a year go through this problem its woth changing.

Simple. The baby is registered in the mother's family record (if it doesnt exist make it exist) then she can state the father of the baby. If someone disagrees then it can be contested in court with DNA tests like most other countries.

Will the Japanese government make the simple changes. No chance... it won't even awknowledge that such simple changes are even possible.

Update - As of this week a government bill to reform the law has been withdrawn.

1. The MPs (mostly old men) didnt like the bill.
2. The bill had decided that the doctor could decide the bill by saying when the conception was.
3. But also no matter what the husband at the time would be considered the daddy.
4. How about the actual father is the father?

one Mp said "Not all pregnancies resulting from adultery are necessarily illegal. The aim of this special measure is to protect the family life of mothers that have remarried after divorce"

However, someone else said it would destroy marriage to allow the father to be the father...logic.
 

Reviews

[JP thinks the WC is apt..]

Fascinating. Strange ideas abound in every culture I'm sure but this one here must rank among the all-time greats. I like the bullet-point rhythm of the opening, each point is jabbing and pithy. And concluding with that irony of ironies is just right.