Counseling Service for International Marriage and Divorce
(Sponsored by Nippon Foundation)

 

ISSJ provides counseling services for the issues surrounding international marriage and divorce with a grant from the Nippon Foundation. At the dawn of this new century, more and more international exchange has been taking place in Japan. International marriage is increasing yearly with it numerous problems as well. Taking the laws and legal procedures of the country involved into account, we provide assistance in such areas as marriage and divorce procedures, parental authority over children, visitation rights, expenses for raising children, problems receiving compensation for damages, and the search for missing family members. It is essential to fully consider and understand cultural and social circumstances of presenting problems in handling those internationally intertwined cases.

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of cases of marriage problems between Japanese husbands and Filipino wives. Having had social workers from DSWD (Dept. of Social Welfare and Development) and CFO (Commissions of Filipinos Oversea), counseling services in Japanese, English, and Tagalogue has been available for those couples at ISSJ. There have been many cases in which the wives were able to share their feelings and worries with the Filipino social workers in their own language, regain psychological security, comprehend their situation, and finally solve their own problems independently.