The Difficulty of Enforcing American Family Law Judgments in Japan

This Note examines modem Japanese family law, focusing particularly on Japan\u27s failure to ratify the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the difficulty that poses for parents seeking to enforce custody orders from their home country in Japan; the formal, functional, and cultural limitations within the Japanese legal system that make joint custody between separated parents very difficult to achieve; procedures in place in the United States at both the local and federal level to prevent international child abduction; and, finally, a recommendation that the United States utilize its unique relationship with Japan to urge adoption and ratification of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and implement internal changes to its family law system so as to comply with international norms