Note that a country can have several status's with respect to a treaty. These seem to be defined in Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties which went into effect in 1980. The exact meaning of each of the following needs to be expressed by someone more familiar with international treaties than this author. But here are some designations, and what they "appear" to mean. (I AM NOT A LAWYER, SO PLEASE DO NOT RELY ON THESE DEFINITIONS.)

Status	Meaning	Legal weight in Japan
Ratification	we are a full party to this convention	yes
Accession	unknown	unknown
Succession	unknown	unknown
Signature only	we plan to agree to this treaty, but have to bring it back home and check with our law enacting bodies first.	no

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Last modified: March 19, 2007	Copyright © 2003-2006	Contact us
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