[CherBear04]

Does anyone have any experience adopting from Japan? Or any information regarding this. My husband and I were looking over the terms and conditions and it all seemed pretty normal except for the last paragraph. Which stated adoptions will not be allowed by people who have temporary travel visas, and must show proof of long-term residency. Does this mean that you have to live there? If so, does anyone know for how long?

Thanks for any information you might be able to provide!

[kazmama25]

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!

[Vern78]

Kazmama - I sent you a PM

[barefootbride]

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.

[kazmama25]

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!!