Japan allows divorced couples to negotiate joint custody of children for first time

Divorced couples in Japan will be able to negotiate joint custody of their children for the first time from Wednesday. Photograph: ken_oka/Getty Images

Divorced couples in Japan will be able to negotiate joint custody of their children from Wednesday, in the first major change to the country’s laws governing child-rearing in more than a century.

Previously, Japan’s Civil Code required couples to decide which parent would take custody of their children when they divorce.