With the Diet endorsing the Hague Convention to help settle parental cross-border child abductions after years of lobbying by foreign governments and citizens, Japan is being urged to provide adequate support to parents and children separated through failed marriages.

The 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction sets out the rules and procedures for the prompt return to the country of habitual residence of children under age 16 taken or retained by one parent, if requested by the other.

Japan aims to join the pact, which currently has 89 signatory nations, by the end of the year after completing all necessary domestic procedures. The country has been accused of being a "safe haven" for such child abductions and will be the last Group of Eight member to accede to the treaty.