Japan joins global conservation Pact

 many Japanese parents, and those foreign, have campaigned for change, the Japanese Government has agreed to sign an international treaty that defines procedures for settling cross-border child custody disputes.

The Japan is the only one of the Group of seven industrialized nations still adhere to the Convention of the Hague International child abduction.

Correspondents say that the move follows intense foreign pressure on Tokyo.

Its policies have been blamed for makes it easier for mothers Japanese withdraw children of foreign fathers.

The Hague Convention was intended to protect the rights of both parents, and it seeks to ensure that custody decisions are made under the laws of the country who provided the first home for children.

A Japanese official, Yusuke Asakura, said that the cabinet of Prime Minister Naoto Kan has approved the change.

Deep switch

In the Japan, courts give normally guard a parent after a marriage breakdown and it is the parent, leaving the other parent have any access.

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Twelve countries were engaging in the Japan to subscribe to the Hague Convention:

US: 131Canada: 38UK: 38 France: 30Germany 2Australia, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand and Spain - no availableBelgium figures and the-0 casesMany Colombia separating couples come to amicable agreements, but it is not unusual for a parent to cut their children forever.

There is a quarter of a million divorces, to the Japan each year which is relatively low by international standards, but a dramatic increase in its own context.

BBC correspondent, Tokyo, Roland Buerk, said that the implementation of the decision to follow the Hague Convention is likely to be a long process.

This would mean a change in the expectation that families should largely arrange things for themselves, to the State to enforce access payments and child support agreements.

Bills to amend Japanese law, which has no concept of joint custody - should be submitted to the Parliament at the end of the year.

But our correspondent says that these are likely to face an opposition on the ground that change could impede Japanese fleeing abusive relationships abroad.

Each year, thousands of people Japanese marry foreigners.