A recent protest in Japan by American fathers aimed to put pressure on Japan to sign the Hague Convention. Countries that sign the international treaty promise to return children back to their country of habitual residence if that child is a victim of international parental child abduction. By signing the treaty, countries say that they will honor the child custody arrangements of other signers. Japan promised to sign the Hague Convention last May, but the country says that it will not apply the law retroactively.

This does not give fathers whose Japanese ex-wives have already brought their children to Japan much hope. The fathers would like Japan to apply the law retroactively and to create a plan for restoring the child custody and visitation rights to fathers whose children are being kept from them in Japan.

The fathers' protest was timed to coincide with a visit by Vice President Joe Biden to the country. Biden met on Tuesday with Prime Minister Naoto Kan. Protesters wanted Biden to speak publicly about the issue of international parental child abduction in Japan, but it is not clear if he took note of the protest.

Currently 173 children have been abducted by a Japanese parent and taken from America to Japan. Part of the reason that Japan is reluctant to sign the treaty is because traditional custom holds that children should be raised by only one parent after divorce and that parent is virtually always the mother. Japan could take years to actually sign the treaty and put it in place because its domestic laws need to be changed to make way for it.

Source: Stars and Stripes, "Left-behind fathers urge U.S. to push Japan to sign Hague treaty," Charlie Reed, Aug. 23, 2011