教甄教程◆應用外語科題庫下載題庫

   Walter Benda had no inkling of what would take place after his Japanese wife took their two small daughters, then aged 6 and 4, back to Japan, effectively ending their 13-year-old marriage and his access to his children. Such is the common case that happened to hundreds of parents, mostly men from North America, Europe and elsewhere, who have been left without any recourse after their estranged partners took their half-Japanese children back to the country. 

   The upper house of parliament of Japan voted unanimously to join the 1980 Hague Convention on international child abduction following passage by the more powerful lower house last month. Japan is the only Group of Seven nation that has not joined the convention, which has 89 signatories. Japan must still overcome various governmental and legislative hurdles before the Hague Convention can take full effect. The government has said it aims for final ratification by the end of this fiscal year -- March 2014. 

   Under the pact, Japan's Foreign Ministry would set up a central authority to handle petitions by the foreign parent to locate or visit the child, and try to work with the parents to settle disputes through consultations. Also, children under 16 who are taken away by one parent after a failed marriage must be returned to the country in which they normally live, if action is requested by the other parent. It also protects the access rights of both parents. 

   Tokyo previously refused to sign the treaty, citing the need to protect Japanese mothers from abusive foreign husbands. Japan's resistance earned it a reputation as a haven for child abductors, and in 2010 prompted the US House of Representatives to pass a nonbinding resolution condemning the retention of children in Japan "in violation of their human rights and United States and international law."

    Japanese law allows only one parent to have custody of children in cases of divorce — nearly always the mother. That's kept some foreign fathers and many Japanese fathers from seeing their children until they are grown. However, adopting the Hague pact wouldn't lead to major changes in Japanese family law, such as allowing joint custody.