The Kan Cabinet on May 20 endorsed a policy of Japan joining the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which sets procedures for settling cross-border child custody disputes.
The administration hopes to submit related bills and a request for approval of Japan's joining the convention to the Diet by the end of 2011. If Japan joins the convention, it will not be applied retroactively.
A total of 84 countries, mainly in the Americas and Europe, are parties to the convention, which went into effect in 1983. Among the Group of Eight industrialized countries, Japan and Russia have not joined the convention. The United States and European countries have urged Japan to join, and Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced Japan's decision during a G8 summit held in Deauville, France, on May 26-27.