On April 1, Japan will accede to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The government has completed the formal procedures for joining the convention, so the question now is how to ensure a reliable implementation of the convention for the sake of the children and parents concerned.

The treaty, signed by 90 countries around the world since it was concluded in 1980, went into force in 1983. It sets out the rules and procedures with which to comply after one parent requests that his/her children under 16 who were abducted by the other parent be promptly returned to their country of habitual residence.

Japan was the only Group of Eight developed county that had long put off joining the convention. With the increase in international marriages involving Japanese nationals — which hit 34,000 in 2009 according to the welfare ministry — there have been many cases in which a Japanese parent, after breaking up with the foreign spouse, unilaterally takes the children back to Japan and refuses to let the other parent see them. In some cases, Japanese living overseas have reportedly been barred from visiting Japan with their children on the grounds that Japan had not signed the Hague Convention. It is hoped that Japan's acceptance of the international rules set up by the treaty will dispel the distrust of the Japanese legal system that has built up overseas on this matter.