The families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea decades ago said Tuesday they are planning to meet with U.S. government officials and lawmakers to seek support for the early return of the victims.
Takuya Yokota, 56, the younger brother of Megumi Yokota — a symbolic figure among the Japanese abductees — and others including Koichiro Iizuka, 48, the son of Yaeko Taguchi, who went missing in 1978 at age 22, left Tokyo for Washington the same day.
Megumi Yokota was abducted at age 13 by North Korean agents in Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast in 1977 while returning home from badminton practice at her junior high school. Pyongyang claims she died by suicide in 1994.
Takuya Yokota, head of a group representing the families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea decades earlier, meets the press at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on April 29, 2025, before flying to Washington for meetings with U.S. government officials and lawmakers. (Kyodo)
Before his departure from Haneda airport, Yokota told reporters, “With the international situation fluid, the United States and North Korea may draw closer,” as President Donald Trump has recently said he has a “great relationship” with leader Kim Jong Un.
Iizuka said he will convey to the United States his desire for the abduction issue to be taken up at the negotiating table if relations between Washington and Pyongyang move forward. The United States and Japan do not have diplomatic ties with North Korea.
In February, Akihiro Arimoto, the father of abductee Keiko Arimoto, died aged 96. Yokota and Iizuka are carrying to Washington a copy of a letter that Arimoto received from Trump in the past and a photograph of his daughter, both entrusted to them by the family.
“I want (the United States) to better understand that we do not have much time,” Yokota added.
Since the return of five abductees to Japan in 2002, Tokyo has sought the release of 12 others it has officially recognized as having been taken by North Korea. It also suspects Pyongyang’s involvement in the disappearances of other Japanese citizens.
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