The Hague Convention (Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction)
Child Contact Support Organizations
(Assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
This assistance is available only in cases where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan has made a "Decision for Assistance in Child’s Return to Foreign State" or a "Decision for Assistance in Contact with Child in Japan".
1. Introduction
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs provides assistance to facilitate smooth cross-border contact between parents and children. In cases where relevant parties have reached an agreement on the matter of contact with a child, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can cover the costs, up to a certain limit, associated with the use of the services of a child contact support organization by the parties. When receiving this assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the parties can choose a support organization from the "List of the Child Contact Organizations" (PDF) 
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[What Child Contact Support Organizations do]
- Child Handovers and Supervision: Support organization staff can facilitate handovers of the child for contact time if the parties cannot meet face-to-face, or accompany them during contact sessions. Staff will monitor whether the parent having the contact time is following the rules. If not, the staff will give a warning to the parent.
- Supervised Online Contact: During the supervised online sessions, staff will observe the child's expressions and behaviors, and intervene in consideration of the child's well-being as necessary. For example, if the parent engages in inappropriate behaviors, the staff will warn the parent online, mute their conversations or disconnect them.
- Communication and Coordination: If parties or their representatives have difficulties communicating with each other to set up contact time, the support organizations can act as an intermediary to coordinate the time and location for contact time. However, the support organizations do not facilitate discussion, mediate, or persuade either party regarding agreements on specifics of contact time.
- Examples of assistance (PDF)
(Written by the International Social Service Japan (ISSJ))
2. How to Use This Service
In order to have access to this assistance, the parties involved must first reach an agreement concerning the use of the services of a child contact support organization commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate contact with their child. The details of contact (in-person or online, the length of contact sessions, and so on) should be agreed upon as well, after which both parties should submit their applications to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the child contact support organization. Following this, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the child contact support organization carry out the necessary procedures for bearing the costs. The Ministry can only bear costs incurred after these procedures are completed.
Before the first contact session, intake interviews with the child contact support organization are conducted with each party to confirm the details of their agreement regarding contact with the child and to explain the terms and conditions of contact support. It is a mandatory step for the parties to reach an agreement with the child contact support organization regarding the details of its services prior to using the organization's services. The child contact support organization may also opt to conduct follow-up interviews after contact has taken place.
3. Important Notes
The following points should be kept in mind when using the service of Child Contact Support Organizations.
- After both parties apply to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the support organization, both organizations will carry out the necessary procedures for bearing the costs. Since these procedures require a certain amount of time, please apply well in advance to give ample time (one month before the desired timing of contact date).
- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will cover the costs of up to 4 “in-person” sessions and 4 supervised online sessions per case. Additionally, one in-person session may be substituted with one online session. For each contact session, the Ministry can cover the cost for the maximum of 5 hours per day. However, some support organizations may set their own limits on the hours they can support.
- Expenses such as admission fees, entrance fees, food, drink, travel and communication associated with the contact time are not met by the Ministry.
