Japan lacking on intl adoption Nation needs to ratify Hague convention to protect children

JUL

17

Japan lacking on intl adoption Nation needs to ratify Hague convention to protect children

Criticism is growing in the United States--a country that adopts nearly 20,000 children from overseas every year--that the Japanese government does not adequately supervise domestic adoption agencies.

Michele Bond, who oversees international adoptions for the U.S. State Department as deputy assistant secretary of state for Overseas Citizens Services, visited Japan in May. During her stay, Bond asked the Foreign Ministry and others for Japan to ratify the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention).

The convention stipulates the rights of children regarding international adoption and ensuring sound environments for them to be raised. The protocol came into effect in 1995 and requires such safeguards as thorough confirmation that the birth parents and other relevant people consent to international adoption, as well as mandates that the suitability of adoptive parents be investigated.

Furthermore, the convention requires that agencies handling international adoptions be accredited and their ethics, revenues and expenditures monitored.

About 80 countries are party to the Hague Adoption Convention, including China and South Korea. Japan is the only one of the seven leading industrial countries that has yet to join.

Japan's legal framework on facilitating adoptions is highly limited. Adoption agencies are required by the Social Welfare Services Law to register with prefectural governments, but there are no punitive measures for agencies who do not register.

The central government and local public administration offices have little involvement with adoption agencies and it is easy for "things to [go] wrong," Bond said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.

According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, 12 adoption agencies were registered with local governments nationwide as of 2007. Of these, four facilitate the adoption of Japanese children by people in other countries.

Of the Japanese children presented by adoption agencies to adoptive parents in Japan and other countries, many are recently born infants. The same is true of most Japanese children adopted by U.S. parents. Many of the birth parents are minors with little ability to earn a living.

In the four years from 2004 through 2007, agencies notified local governments of 85 cases of international adoption of Japanese-born children. However, U.S. statistics show that the United States issued 146 visas over the same period, a clear indication of just how many cases are unreported.

"We have no idea which children go overseas and what their lives are like in those countries," said Chuo University Prof. Yasuhiro Okuda, an expert on the issue.

The situation is serious--children are at risk of becoming involved in such horrors as child prostitution and organ trafficking. Problems also have occurred that are dangerously close to human trafficking.

The Child Welfare Law prohibits the facilitation of adoption for profit but does allow the acceptance of donations. The distinction between commercial revenue and donations is a fuzzy one, and there was a case in which an agency demanded 5.5 million yen as a "thank you payment" from a couple seeking to adopt.