Paper Sings

I followed DFAT’s instructions for challenging its decision. When I reached the Information Commissioner, I learned I was seven days late. The deadline had been running before either of the department’s decision letters arrived.

In this episode, I return to LEX13336, the sixty-nine-page release about passport letters to young Australians separated from a parent in Japan, and follow the effort to get more of the record disclosed. Along the way, an invitation to resolve the dispute becomes a request that I ask for less, while information withheld in one document turns up in another. DFAT maintains that nothing more can be released. The documents give me reason to test that claim.

Source documents are freely available on the episode’s Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/Paper_Sings/posts/episode-6-with-174658978

*Correction: At about 10:34, the IC review deadline should be 9 May 2026, not 9 March.

To find out what happens after a letter is sent, I had to send quite a few of my own.

In this episode, I follow the search for DFAT’s instructions on its passport-letter pathway: an offer to tell young Australians separated from an Australian parent that they may be eligible for a passport. A missing Handbook entry, an internal review and a final clarification reveal what staff were told to do, and what the procedure left unanswered.

DFAT recognised that a letter might be intercepted or sent to the wrong address. The register released to me recorded no response against each of its five entries. A young adult is entitled not to respond. But did they ever see the offer?

For the department, there was a record of action. For the family, there could still be nothing.

Transcript available from 5 November.

Source documents are freely available on the episode’s Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/Paper_Sings/posts/episode-5-after-173956412

YouTube subtitles available: English, Japanese, French, Italian, German, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Filipino and Korean. Select CC, then choose your language in Settings.

I asked DFAT what its passport letters had achieved.

Sixty-nine pages came back. Inside were officials debating who should receive a letter, questioning proposed restrictions, and asking when a case could be closed.

I follow those exchanges to understand the limits of the help offered to families like mine, and what the records could tell me about whether that help ever reached the young people it was meant for.

Source documents: https://www.patreon.com/Paper_Sings/posts/episode-4-what-173351848

Japan’s custody law has changed. But what does that mean for families who have already spent years apart?

In this extended episode, I follow the records behind the reform, the families its headline figures overlook, and the gap between parental authority and actual contact.

For my daughter, adulthood had already changed the question. What could reform offer us now?

Episode transcript available by 27 October.

Correction: The visitation figures cited in this episode at timestamp 9.40 cover divorced and never-married single-parent households combined, not divorced households alone. For divorced households alone, the figures are 32.7% and 48.4%, respectively.

10:30 — The ABC also reported that Tomoyama’s former partner denied her account of abuse.

Source-document guide (free PDF on the episode post): https://www.patreon.com/Paper_Sings/posts/episode-3-law-173182920

Chapters
00:00 Opening: The Law Changes
01:46 Document 1: The Foreign Minister's letter
03:42 Document 2: Australia's reform submission
05:14 Document 3: International families and the figures
09:30 Document 4: Visitation and family experiences
11:10 Document 5: Practical questions about reform
13:00 Document 6: The Ministry of Justice guide
16:19 Adulthood and the information question
18:23 Bringing the documents together
19:47 Next episode: DFAT's response arrives

I’m Daniel Madden, an Australian teacher and a father who has spent years separated from his daughter in Japan. My search for answers became an investigation into what governments promise families, what they do, and what happens afterwards.

Paper Sings follows that investigation through letters, official replies and documents released under Freedom of Information. This short introduction explains where it began and how to follow it.

Start with The File Opens. Paper Sings is free to listen to. For the choices, doubts and personal stakes behind the investigation, The View from Below is the paid companion, available through membership here on Patreon.

Paper Sings. What the record reveals.

Free five-minute preview · Full instalment for paid members

How much of an investigation should rest on a personal story? In Something More Durable, I reflect on the experience behind Paper Sings, the limits of media attention, and building a public record that can be tested.

The View from Below explores the choices and reasoning behind the investigation.

Hear the full instalment

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The Australian Embassy in Tokyo confirms that it has sent my daughter a letter about an Australian passport. After years without contact, that is welcome news.

But what does “sent” actually tell us?

I follow the correspondence to discover what the letter is meant to achieve and what government knows about whether it does. A request to send one letter becomes a freedom of information request about what happens after it leaves the Embassy.

(Transcript available from 13 October 2026)

Written and presented by Daniel Madden.
Music: Avalanche by Soulish.

In the first episode of Paper Sings, I return to the newspaper report and correspondence that started this investigation. A public account of Australian families separated in Japan meets a private exchange about what assistance is available and what happens when someone asks for it.

Transcript and supporting documents attached below.

Written and presented by Daniel Madden.
Music: Avalanche by Soulish.