Responsibility for collecting data on parental abductions to Japan and settling cross-border child custody disputes resulting from failed international marriages will rest with the foreign minister, new guidelines said Sunday.
The guidelines, drafted by the Foreign Ministry ahead of Tokyo's signing of the Hague Convention, state that the foreign minister can ask local governments, police, schools, childcare facilities and shelters for abuse victims to determine the whereabouts of abducted children.
The Hague Convention is an international treaty spelling out procedures for settling international child custody disputes. Japan is the only member of the Group of Eight major countries that hasn't joined the convention. (Japan Times)
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