One possible cause for Parental Alienating behavior was related by a group of left-behind fathers in Tokyo.  After the war, the only way to rebuild the country was for the men to work intense schedules and the women to take are of everything else in a family's life.  Fathers worked insane hours and never spent time at home. The mother was totally in charge, and took charge of the weekly paycheck. The father, working weekends and late nights often became nothing more than just that - a paycheck, and in fact became a nuisance to have around. This clear division of labor was an important reason behind Japan's rapid post World War 2 growth. But as a result, the mother often developed an un-naturally close relationship with the children because she was the only one around.  The father was often not much of one in the traditional sense.  The laws enacted by this time backed up these responsibilities by causing a nearly equal split of custody between men and women to move to an 80% custodial rate for women.

Fast forward through a generation or two, and you how have new mothers trying to recreate that same feeling with their children, but with fewer fathers working the same intense hours. Remember, its only been 60 years since the end of WW2 and perhaps 25 or so since Japan has really begun to be affluent enough for these behaviors to start to change.  Or overlay this feeling onto an international relationship where there is no such shared history.  This is the situation in Japan right now and may be uniquely Japanese cause of Parental Alienating behaviors in Japan.  Certainly others exist, as there are documented cases of fathers abducting their children also.  In fact, Prime Minister Koizumi is a well-known example of a father alienating two children against their mother after a divorce.

PAS is not well known in Japan.  In fact, several internet searches and queries to Japanese psychologists and psychiatrists in Japan have turned up nothing.  So the partial translations on this page may be some of the only Japanese information available.  Half of this was gleaned from discussions at The Father's Website, who are researching this and translating more information.  The other half is based on a translation submitted as a brief to a Family Court in Japan.  Possibly the first.

Recently, another Japanese father has begun doing a lot of Japanese translation of PAS related literature. His translations are listed in the following table of Essays.  But he has much more on his site.  Be sure to visit it.

It is vitally important that PAS be included into the next version of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  This will help it to be recognized by courts worldwide.  See our page on Help Get PAS into DSM-V