Has anyone adopted a kid from Japan?

I don't have a personal experience, but I have looked into this some. There are orphanages in Japan. It is more expensive to adopt from Japan than other asian countries and more difficult. I think primarily because it's not just the mom that has to OK putting the child up for adoption (and giving up all guardian rights). Here are the guidelines:

1) The child must be under six at the time the adoption petition is filed or eight if s/he's been under the continuous custody of the prospective adoptive parents since six.

2) Both parents must jointly consent to the adoption. Single parents require the Family Court's consent.

3) One of the adoptive parents must be over 25 years of age and the other must be over 20 years old.

4) All persons with legal custody of the child, including the natural and adoptive parents, must consent to the adoption, EXCEPT IF:

a) The natural parents are incapable of declaring their intent;

b) Family Court rules that the natural parents have treated the child with "cruelty;"

c) The natural parents have abandoned the child; or

d) Any other cause "seriously harmful to the benefits of the person to be adopted" exists.

5) The child must live with the adoptive parents for at least six months before the Family Court will render a final judgement and issue an adoption decree.

I have never EVER heard of this happening. Japanese people themselves have an extremely slim chance of adopting a Japanese baby. Reasons: 1. unwanted pregnancies usually end in abortion. 2. children are listed on a family's register, and to remove a person from your register just is not done.

The only case in which a child could be adopted would be if both parents were dead, in which case the child would be adopted by a relative. If there were no living relatives, then an outside person could adopt. And as you can imagine, this almost never happens!

The chances of this happening are near zero. Japan has the lowest birth rate in Asia. And Japanese teen girls also have a very low unwed mother rate.

China is another matter. They have thousands of unwanted kids.