This picture taken on March 29, 2024 shows people holding a banner saying "Protect children from joint custody after divorce" during a rally outside the National Diet Building in Tokyo against the Japanese government's plan to allow joint custody after divorce. - AFP
TOKYO: Masaki Kubota's delight at reuniting with his two sons gave way to heartbreak when the younger, two years old, stared at him uncomprehendingly as if to say: "Who are you?"
It was their first encounter since his wife left with the boys a year earlier -- the kind of painful separation that Japan's new parental custody rules aim to prevent.
