WASHINGTON — The United States pressed Japan Thursday to let parents see children snatched by estranged partners, saying it would not tolerate loopholes as Tokyo moves to resolve the longtime source of tension.
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Rep. Smith urges the Department of State to negotiate MOU with Japan concurrently with The Hague Convention or 173 American children abducted to Japan and their parents may be left behind permanently. Testifying are The Honorable Susan Jacobs and The Honorable Kurt Campbell The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights held a hearing on "Improving Implementation of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction." Testifying are The Honorable Susan Jacobs and The Honorable Kurt Campbell.  WASHINGTON – Ever since Christopher Savoie was arrested in 2009 after a failed attempt to retrieve his abducted children, Japan has been overwhelmed by international pressure to resolve its ever-increasing number of abduction cases. After years of demarches and public pleas by foreign governments, Japan has finally announced its intention to sign the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
 STEPHEN LONG: It's a parent's nightmare, a couple splits up, and one parent abducts the child or children and flees overseas. There's been a spate of cases where children have been taken to Japan.
Parents whose kids were taken their without their consent say the Australian Government's failing to prevent future abductions. They say Japanese consulates are freely issuing new passports to parents who want to abduct children. Sarah Dingle reports. Parental kidnappings do not garner the media attention and sense of urgency from law enforcement that they deserve. Experts say there is a perception among the public and law enforcement officials that children kidnapped by their parents are not in danger. While it is true that statistics from the US department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile and Delinquency Protection indicate that only 4% of children abducted by their parents are physically harmed, can we so easily forget to consider the emotional toll it takes on these innocent victims.
 Susan Sachinelli
Child abductions unfortunately occur all over the world. And while some of the cases are solved, a majority of the cases are not, even when the parent knows who the abductor is – the other parent. A discouraging phenomenon in Australia has been parents, mainly Japanese, abducting the child or children back to Japan. The Australian Embassy located in Japan said in 2010, there were 13 abductions to date. NIIGATA -- A Mexican man was found guilty and given a suspended jail term Tuesday for attempting to recover his abducted daughter last November by entering his own home, which he had been locked out of in Niigata on the Sea of Japan, and encountering resistance from the child’s grandmother who tried to prevent him from seeing his daughter. Both he and the Grandmother received minor injuries as a result of her resistance and the ensuing altercation, but the grandmother was not charged with any crime.
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