I hate that I have to make this post, but every other effort to resolve this problem has failed and we are out of time.
I am living in Japan with my three-year-old son. We have been living apart from my Japanese wife, his mother, for almost two years because of domestic violence. Very long and terrible story short, the authorities in Japan will not help us because I am a foreigner and she is absolutely unapologetic to the point of denying anything even happened and accusing me of abuse for protecting him. Apart from a few temporary jobs, I am also unable to find any work despite many places saying that they are hiring. So I cannot support us anymore. Add to that, my wife will not provide any child support and now doesn't communicate with me at all. Before, for the last 18 months, she has been sending me a nonstop barrage of threatening messages before going completely silent. Despite this and the abuse, she expect to retain custody of him and is just waiting for me to fail. The authorities are not helping her, but they aren't doing anything about her behavior or her actually illegal actions against us. All of these things put together, it has become impossible for us to live in peace here, and when I'm broke she would likely be given sole custody of my son by default and I would probably get deported or jailed for daring to oppose her.
Which brings me to the second problem: America. Both me and my son are registered American citizens with valid passports. But unless you've been living under a rock, you already know why taking a half-Japanese child who was born in Japan to a country that is actively disappearing non-white birthright citizens and has a history of separating children from their families for no actual reason is just as bad an idea as staying here.
The plan right now is to somehow fly us both to Ireland and request asylum. I tried requesting asylum through the Irish Embassy in Japan, but it is not allowed. We have just about one more week in which to leave before other complications such as bills and my visa requiring renewal actually make it impossible for me to simply leave the country with my son without raising alarms.
I am selling everything that we can't take with us, but I don't have anywhere near the amount needed even to just buy one-way tickets, to say nothing of other expenses like travel to the airport and food along the way. If there is any way the people here can help out, even partially, I would be eternally grateful. I never in my life thought that something like this would happen and I am running myself ragged trying to digitize documents and get everything ready. Not to mention rolling anxiety attacks because of the very real possibility that my son, who has survived multiple instances of abuse could be given back to his abusers who show no remorse for what they've done to us.
Sorry to be so dower, I have spent the past few months fighting a losing battle with one thing failing after another and no one having the slightest idea how to help me or even just enable me to solve our situation on my own.
How to help:
- Western Union (preferred): This will give me the money directly and immediately, please try to send help using this method. PM me and I will give you the necessary contact information.
- PayPal (Ko-fi is malfunctioning): https://www.paypal.me/AeronMelon, please only use if you cannot wire me money.
Also, if anyone reading this happens to be from Ireland or know someone in Ireland and can provide any kind of assistance with an affordable place to stay or a job in the education sector, that would be extremely helpful.
UPDATE 10/22:
I now have enough money to take care all travel to the airport and food and other necessities for the journey, thank you very much. I have also been getting a lot of useful information about my trip and Ireland itself, thank you again. I still need to get most of the money for the actual tickets. Prices are fluctuating wildly, but right now, it's possible to get a ticket for both of us for a little over ¥110,000 (~$725 USD, ~€625 EUR) so I want to be able to buy it before prices change again. Realistically, we have until the weekend to leave, so we're hoping as hard as we can.
Also, because this is a one-off emergency, if you would rather your donation be a loan I will absolutely pay you back just as soon as I'm back on my feet. Just message me with a way to contact you in the indeterminate future and I will.
Yeah, that just makes this so sinister.
What I mean is that my fridge doesn’t have a screen. So if Panasonic decided to show me ads on a fridge where the most complicated feature is the ice maker, that would be a neat trick.