Adopting from Japan?

We adopted our younger daughter from Japan last year and we are both American citizens, born and raised in the U.S. We went through an agency stateside who facilitates a birth mother program in Japan. Everything went very smoothly start to finish and I'd definitely recommend our agency and Japanese adoption in general. Our agency has some age, length of marriage, etc. guidelines for this program (as most agencies will) so it's a good idea to feel out agencies to find one that is a good fit for you. Best of luck to you!

Kazmama - I sent you a PM

I just started the research. I spoke to an social services today here in Japan that helps foreigners adopt Japanese children, most of which are multi ethnic and without Nationality. You will rarely find a full blooded Japanese baby available. It is very unnatural for Japanese to adopt other Japanese. Bloodline is very important here. Most children will stay with family members or stay in the Orphanage until they finish HS. Many children are part Korean or Filipino. I was told that I would have to stay in Japan for 3 years from the time of adoption. I'm not sure if I will have found a match by then and wanting to stay in Japan for that long. I have been here for 4 years already and would like to move to another country. Kazmama is privilege to have adopted a baby from Japan while living in the US. I think she could point you into the right direction.

Hi there, I'm sorry for not responding sooner. I rarely am able to check this forum. I really don't know much about adopting from Japan while living in Japan. It sounds like there may be different rules in that situation and it's ironic that it seems to be more complicated than adopting a Japanese child while living in the U.S. I will PM you with the name of our agency. They are wonderful and we adopted both of our wonderful daughters through them. Our daughter from Japan is actually of full Japanese heritage, though it would not have mattered to us at all if she had been of mixed ethnicity (afterall, our daughter from Kazakhstan is a beautiful mixture of many cultures :-) ) Our agency works with a birth mother program and there are certain criteria that parents should meet (as with most IA programs). The best thing to do would be to talk to our agency to find out if their program is a good fit for you Please feel free to write to me at gecech@yahoo.com if you have any other questions or if you'd like to access our blog. Best of luck to you!!

Hi kazmama, i tried to PM you but your box is full. We have very close friends who are interested in a Japanese adoption, and i would love the name of your agency for them. thanks in advance. P.s. your daughters are GORGEOUS! :cheer:

hi there, I'm sorry- I'm not very good at clearing out my inbox here. I just cleared out some messages to free up some space. :-) Please also check out our public blog page at: [url=http://familycech.blogspot.com]Kaz-Japan Cuties[/url] for more info regarding our agency and their requirements for Japanese adoptions. Hope to hear from you soon and best of luck to your friends!

Eryn I pm you about getting access to your blog. Hopefully you can reply me soon. We are in the process in adopting a child from Japan. Hopefully can learn the experience you had before. Thanks.

Hi there, I am half Japanese and we have been interested in adopting from Japan. Can you please share with us the agency you used? Thanks so much, Dawn

April Fool's Day Happy

Hi Kazmama25, I am really interested in adopting from Japan and I would love to research your agency a little more. Can you please let me know the name of the agency you used? Thank you!

Jafetrow: Most of the replies on this thread are from 2008 so l doubt you'll get an answer. Good luck!

I'm not sure where you read the "terms and conditions". If you look at the U.S. State Department website at [url=http://adoption.state.gov/country_information/country_specific_info.php?country-select=japan]JAPAN | Intercountry Adoption[/url], you'll see that Japan has several ways to adopt. The approach that most Americans use, if they do NOT live in Japan, involves getting guardianship of a child so that they can bring him/her to the U.S. to complete a full and final adoption. In short, the child comes home on an IR-4 visa, as long as he/she meets the definition of an "eligible orphan". He/she is then adopted in the parents' state of residence, in a process that is basically the same as a domestic adoption. Once there is a final decree of adoption, the child becomes a citizen automatically, but the parents have to apply for (and pay for) a certificate of citizenship; it does not get sent automatically to the parents, as it does with kids who come home on an IR-3 visa. Now, while it is possible to adopt a child from Japan without residing there, I must tell you that it is not easy. First off, Japan is a small, prosperous country. As a result, there aren't all that many children in need of adoptive families. (Poverty is the number one reason for families around the world to make an adoption plan for a child.) More importantly, the Japanese tend to have a strong belief in the importance of the "blood tie". A person who is willing to adopt a child who is "not of his blood", and to give the child things like the family name and the family's inheritance rights, is viewed as odd. Many birthparents are suspicious that if they place a child for adoption with a non-relative, and especially with a foreigner, the child will wind up being harmed -- possibly by being used in the sex trade or by being enslaved. It is very common, in Japan, for a family having difficulties -- job loss, severe illness of the breadwinner, divorce, etc. -- to place a child in an orphanage, but not to relinquish him/her for adoption. In a sense, the orphanage becomes a respite or foster care provider. If the biological family cannot get back on their feet, the child may remain in the orphanage for years, and may even be visited by his/her parents and other relatives. What many people, and especially non-Japanese people, have found is that living in the country allows them to visit orphanages and get to know the staff. If the staff come to respect them, they may advocate for a child's adoption, when they talk to birthparents. Or, if there is a legally free child, they may be more willing to go through the process that gives guardianship to the adoptive family. In short, it's possible to adopt while living in the U.S., but it's tough enough that many agencies either don't have programs in Japan or have programs that accept only prospective parents who are Japanese. In some cases, you can adopt independently, but it is not a great idea, if you don't know the language or the country's customs. Sharon

Let me also add that, to the extent that families ARE willing to place children with unrelated people living overseas, they tend to prefer prospective parents who are of Japanese heritage. They feel that their birth children will grow up with more exposure to the language and traditions of their birth culture. That is why some agencies in the U.S. limit their Japan programs to families where at least one spouse is of Japanese heritage.

HiWe are interested in adopting a child from Japan. I’m Japanese but my husband isn’t. Would you mind sharing what agency you went through? Thanks!quote=108275]hi there, I'm sorry- I'm not very good at clearing out my inbox here. I just cleared out some messages to free up some space. :-) Please also check out our public blog page at: [url=http://familycech.blogspot.com]Kaz-Japan Cuties[/url] for more info regarding our agency and their requirements for Japanese adoptions. Hope to hear from you soon and best of luck to your friends![/quote]