Foreign parents of children abducted to Japan by their Japanese parent haven’t ever had much to look forward to in terms of getting to see their children again.

That may be about to change though. Japan has announced that it is preparing to enter the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, and it is targeting acting by year’s end.

If so, it will be no minor accomplishment, because the stricken nation will, presumably, first have to overhaul its own domestic child custody laws to make them compatible with the Hague Convention.

Currently, Japanese laws recognize only sole custody awarded to one parent, and make no provision for visitation or timesharing by the parent who is not awarded sole custody.

And the Japanese courts are, by all accounts, biased against foreigners and fathers.

The US and European countries have been exerting increasing pressure on Japan to adopt the Hague Convention and modernize its domestic child custody laws.

Read more in this Australian news article: Japan to sign child abduction convention and this Houston Chronicle news article: Japan moves to join global child custody pact.