Japan ruling, opposition parties agree on Child Abuse Legislation

May 23, 2019

Tokyo--Japan's ruling and opposition parties reached an agreement on Thursday to modify legislation aimed at revising laws against child abuse.

The agreement paved the way for the Diet, the country's parliament, to pass the legislation during its current session set to end next month.

The legislation includes measures to prevent parents found to have committed abuse from repeating such acts.

The ruling-opposition agreement calls on the legislation to urge efforts to provide counseling to such parents based on medical or psychological grounds.

Under the agreement, the legislation will also call for seamless support to children when abusive households move to different locations.

Recent high-profile child abuse cases have involved inadequate information sharing between a child consultation center in charge of the area where the family used to live and that of where the family moved.

The House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, is expected to pass the modified legislation as early as Tuesday for further deliberations at the House of Councillors, the upper chamber. Jiji Press