Prime Minister Naoto Kan's administration said in May it would establish legislation as part of preparations for Japan joining an international convention to prevent cross-border abductions of children by their parents.
Despite international pressure to sign the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, Japan had been reluctant amid strong opposition from politicians in the ruling and opposition parties, experts and Japanese mothers who took their children to Japan after failed international marriages.
Japan's decision was welcomed by the international community, but it is still unclear whether the country will actually be able to sign the treaty anytime soon.