WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. House of Representatives has turned up the pressure on Japan, strongly urging Tokyo to immediately return half-Japanese children who lawmakers say have been kidnapped from their American parents.

The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday for a non-binding resolution that "condemns the abduction and retention" of children held in Japan "in violation of their human rights and United States and international law."

The resolution, which passed 416 to 1, also calls for Japan to allow Americans to visit their children and for Tokyo to join a 1980 international convention on child abduction that would allow for the quick return of the children to America.

Democratic Rep. Jim Moran told reporters the resolution sends a strong signal to Japan that the U.S. Congress "is watching and expecting action."

Republican Rep. Chris Smith said, "Americans are fed up with our friend and ally Japan and their pattern of noncooperation."

The Japanese Embassy said in a statement that Japan is sympathetic to the plight of children caught in custody battles between Japanese and American citizens and "is continuing to make sincere efforts to deal with this issue from the standpoint that the welfare of the child should be of the utmost importance."

The United States often calls Japan its linchpin ally in Asia, but the stance on custody rights has recently become a source of friction. U.S. lawmakers say that at least 121 American children are being held in Japan.

Japanese law allows only one parent to have custody in cases of divorce, usually the mother. Activists say the court system in Japan is tilted against fathers and foreigners.

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, told lawmakers at a hearing Wednesday that the issue is a priority, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton raising it in meetings with Japanese officials.

Campbell said he would also raise the matter when he travels to Tokyo next week and that Japan should act urgently.

"We're going to need to see some progress on this," Campbell said.

Christopher Savoie, a father who was arrested last year after going to Japan in a failed attempt to reclaim his two children, joined lawmakers and other fathers at a news conference before the House vote.