Japan has the seventh highest incidence of reported parental abductions from the United States (currently 23 cases involving 34 children.) Typically, such cases involve a wife who wrongfully takes children to Japan in violation of a custody ruling. Since Japan is not a signatory to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, it does not honor such rulings. In most cases the parent who was awarded legal custody in another country where the family resided never sees the children again.

Now the American State Department has delivered a report to Congress largely targeting Japan in this issue. See the article here. The report lists 269 children abducted since 1994, so it is not a small matter. The U.S. and several other nations are growing increasingly impatient with Japan’s attitude, especially as contrasted with its continual clamor about Megumi Yokota and twelve other Japanese kidnapped by North Korea in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The issue is exacerbated by Japanese family law, which currently awards sole custody in divorces to a single parent, usually the wife, and national predispositions which favor Japanese over foreigners in such disputes. While Japan bureaucrats are reviewing how to handle the issue, a number of legal changes will be required before Japan could join the Convention.