Parents who can't see their children after an international divorce will welcome Japan's latest moves to revise its laws on returning children taken across borders while hoping that enforcement of the legal revisions will be swift.
At the same time, experts say new domestic laws are required to protect children and wives from domestic violence, a reason that is often cited by Japanese mothers who take their children to Japan without the consent of their non-Japanese fathers — an act often branded as abduction by nations that have signed the Hague Convention.
Cabinet members on Friday confirmed that the government will proceed with work to bring domestic laws in line with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, paving the way for Japan to sign it.
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