JAPAN has bowed to global pressure to end the parental abductions of children from broken international marriages.
Japan is the only major industrial nation that has not signed the 1980 Hague Convention that requires the return of wrongfully kept children to their country of habitual residence.
Tokyo has decided to ratify the treaty, the Kyodo news agency said, but will not sign up immediately as it needs time to bring its domestic laws in line with those of other signatory nations.
Courts in Japan routinely award custody to only one parent, usually the mother, and almost never to foreign parents.
Activists say thousands of Japanese have denied estranged foreign partners access to their children.
The government’s change of heart came about because “leaving the issue unresolved may lead to a decline in Japan’s international credibility”, Kyodo said.
Former prime minister Yukio Hatoyama said in February he was willing to sign the convention, but he resigned in May over political funding scandals and mishandling a long-running dispute over a controversial US airbase.
US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell urged Japan’s Justice Minister Keiko Chiba to sign the treaty during his visit to Tokyo in June, shortly after centre-left Prime Minister Naoto Kan took power.
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