The Foreign Ministry said Thursday it had received 110 requests from parents seeking either the return of children taken by the other parent or visitation access under the Hague Convention on cross-border child custody disputes, nearly a year after the pact took effect in Japan.
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction stipulates rules and procedures for the prompt return of children under 16 to the child's country of habitual residence if taken elsewhere by one parent and the other requests it.
The cases typically involve couples in an international relationship which fails, and one parent takes the child back to his or her native country.