Japan: Gov't unlikely to sign child custody pact for 2 years

Article here. Excerpt:

'The government will need at least two more years before it will sign an international treaty designed to settle child custodial disputes arising from failed international marriages, according to government sources.

In the wake of an increasing number of such cases, the government intends to speed efforts to sign the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. However, relevant legislative measures are unlikely to be submitted to the Diet until 2011 at the earliest, according to the sources.

The treaty stipulates that if a parent takes a child to his or her home country without the other parent's consent after their international marriage has failed, the dispute needs to be settled after the child has been returned to his or her habitual country of residence. The treaty aims to preserve the child custody arrangement that existed before an alleged wrongful removal.

Among the Group of Seven industrialized countries, only Japan has yet to sign the convention, which has resulted in conflict with parties in the treaty's signatory countries. Child custody problems arising from failed international marriages are dealt with under domestic laws in Japan.'