An Australian father has been arrested in Japan after trying to attend his abducted daughter’s sports carnival, sparking a new flashpoint in the long-running diplomatic dispute between Australia and one of its closest allies over child abductions.

Randy Kavanagh was arrested last week after he refused to leave the Takasaki municipal offices without an explanation as to why he could not attend his daughter Anna’s sports carnival in the small Japanese city two hours north of Tokyo, seven years after she was abducted by his estranged wife.

Kavanagh has been held in detention for the past seven days and faces the prospect of another two weeks under Japanese laws, which allow suspects to be detained for 23 days without charge.

His partner, Miko, said Kavanagh was in poor health, had been vom

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