{"id":7740,"date":"2026-04-18T21:20:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T21:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/7740\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T21:20:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T21:20:41","slug":"japan-north-korea-summit-rumours-link-takaichi-to-shock-visit-ahead-of-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/7740\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan-North Korea summit rumours link Takaichi to shock visit ahead of vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/japan?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Japan<\/a> heads into a snap election, Prime Minister <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/sanae-takaichi?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sanae Takaichi<\/a> is rumoured to be weighing a trip to <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/north-korea?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">North Korea<\/a> aimed at securing the return of her country\u2019s citizens who were abducted decades ago.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The suggestion of a breakthrough came from Tsutomu Nishioka, a visiting professor at Reitaku University and long-time campaigner for the abductees\u2019 families.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Nishioka, who chairs the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea and is also a senior member of the conservative Japan Institute for National Fundamentals think tank, told This Week in Asia that Pyongyang had shown openness to talks with Tokyo in exchange for \u201cimmediate, large-scale humanitarian aid\u201d that could include food, medicines and fertiliser.<\/p>\n<p>He said his \u201cinside information\u201d had come from contacts \u201cconnected to North Korea\u201d, pointing also to recent remarks from Takaichi that he interpreted as signals of a potential diplomatic thaw with North Korean leader <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/kim-jong-un?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kim Jong-un<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cTowards resolving the abduction issue, I would like the leaders to engage directly with each other and achieve concrete results,\u201d Takaichi told reporters on January 19, the same day she dissolved the lower house for an election set to be held this Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Voters cast ballots in Tokyo during the 2025 upper house election. Japan\u2019s prime minister may visit North Korea over abductee talks, depending on election results. Photo: Kyodo\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2e6b92e2-df9b-41d3-ab4b-31d719c31db9_2e7a1a2a.jpg\" title=\"Voters cast ballots in Tokyo during the 2025 upper house election. Japan\u2019s prime minister may visit North Korea over abductee talks, depending on election results. Photo: Kyodo\"\/>Voters cast ballots in Tokyo during the 2025 upper house election. Japan\u2019s prime minister may visit North Korea over abductee talks, depending on election results. Photo: KyodoThe Trump factor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Japan heads into a snap election, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is rumoured to be weighing a trip&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[12,13,8,6820,177,17,179,6821,1919,6822,6823,4467,1922,180,178,6212,6819,636,358],"class_list":["post-7740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","tag-china","tag-donald-trump","tag-japan","tag-japan-institute-for-national-fundamentals","tag-japans-politics","tag-japanese","tag-japanese-politics","tag-junichiro-koizumi","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-megumi-yokota","tag-national-association-for-the-rescue-of-japanese-kidnapped-by-north-korea","tag-niigata-prefecture","tag-north-korea","tag-politics","tag-politics-of-japan","tag-pyongyang","tag-reitaku-university","tag-russia","tag-sanae-takaichi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}