The Cabinet of Japan approved amendments to the child abuse prevention law and related legislation following several cases of serious mistreatment of children in the name of discipline, The Japan Times reports.
The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is seeking to enact most of the revisions on April 1, during the ongoing Diet session.
If approved in the Diet, the revised laws will ban parents, foster parents and welfare workers from physically punishing children as a means of discipline.
The Cabinet approval came in the wake of the high-profile case of a 10-year-old girl who was allegedly killed by her abusive father.