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Campbell hopeful Japan will join convention on parental

abduction Tokyo, Oct 7 (Kyodo) US has expressed hope that Japan will soon join an international convention to help resolve child custody cases in which American parents are kept from seeing their children in Japan following failed marriages with Japanese nationals. "I'm hopeful," US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell told a group of reporters at the US Embassy in Tokyo. "I have seen a substantial change in recent months in Japanese attitudes about the parental custody and abduction issues...and I believe a process has begun in Japan." During his previous visits to Japan, Campbell has repeatedly urged the Japanese government to join the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. "I think Japanese friends know that signing the Hague Convention is the necessary and logical step for a proud, compassionate, law-driven country like Japan to take," Campbell said yesterday. The convention provides a procedure for the prompt return of such children to their habitual country of residence and protects parental access rights. On the recent diplomatic standoff between Japan and China, triggered by collisions last month between a Chinese fishing boat and Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels near the disputed Senkaku Islands, Campbell said he hopes top-level discussions between the two countries will lead to improved ties. "We are hopeful that recent bilateral efforts both in Europe and hopefully subsequently in Vietnam will lead to greater dialogue and...in the rebuilding of trust and ties between the two great countries of Asia --Japan and China,'' he said. The senior US official was referring to the talks between Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held Monday in Brussels on the sidelines of a conference of Asian and European leaders as well as the possibility of a bilateral meeting on the fringes of an Asian summit in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi. In the Belgian capital, Kan and Wen agreed to improve bilateral relations by holding high-level talks when appropriate as the two leaders met for the first time since the collisions in the East China Sea in early September. Asked whether US President Barack Obama plans to visit Hiroshima during his visit to Japan in November, Campbell said, "I don't think so," while noting that the White House is in charge of setting Obama's schedule. (Kyodo)