Japan says will sign child abduction treaty
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Japan's foreign minister said on Friday that the new government would sign a treaty on child abductions, addressing one of the few rifts in relations with its main ally the United States (US).
Japan has not signed or ratified the 1980 Hague Convention, which requires the return of wrongfully held children to the countries where they usually live, but a previous left-leaning government had said it planned to do so.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, whose conservative Liberal Democratic Party returned to power last month, said on a visit to Washington that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government would take the same stance.
"The government of Japan is intending to go through the necessary procedures for early signing of the treaty," Mr Kishida told a news conference with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
