It was adopted on the 10th of October 1980 and opened for signature on the 10th of April 1981. It entered into force on the 2nd of December 1983. Japan signed the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) on the 22nd of September 1981 and ratified it on the 9th of June 1982.

The CCW seeks to prohibit or restrict the use of certain conventional weapons which are considered excessively injurious or whose effects are indiscriminate. It contains a framework treaty, which sets out procedure and the basic agenda, and five protocols that regulate specific conventional weapons (Japan is a state party to the framework treaty and protocols I to IV, including Amended Protocol II).

• Protocol I: restricts weapons with non-detectable fragments (entered into force 1983)
• Amended Protocol II: restricts landmines and booby-traps (entered into force 1998)
• Protocol III: restricts incendiary weapons (entered into force 1983)
• Protocol IV: restricts blinding lazar weapons (entered into force 1998)
• Protocol V: sets out obligations and best practices for explosive remnants of war (entered into force 2006)

Currently, 121 States are parties to the Convention with a further six having signed but not yet ratified.

These six countries are Afghanistan, Egypt, Iceland, Nigeria, Sudan and Vietnam. 

The 2016 dates for meetings and conferences of the CCW in Geneva are the following:

• 6-7 April 2016 – Protocol V Meeting of Experts

• 7-8 April 2016 - Amended Protocol II Group of Experts

• 11-15 April 2016 – LAWS Meeting of Experts

• 29 August 2016 – Protocol V Tenth Conference

• 30 August 2016 – Amended Protocol II Eighteenth Annual Conference

• 31 August – 2 September 2016 - Meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the 5th RevCon

• 12-16 December 2016 – CCW Fifth Review Conference