Families of people abducted by North Korea collect signatures in Tokyo
Families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea collected signatures in Tokyo on Saturday for a petition calling for the early return of all the abductees.
About 20 people, including members of the families' group and supporters, gathered on a Ginza district sidewalk to promote the petition. It was the group's first streetside signature-collecting campaign in 12 years.
Participants included Yokota Takuya, who leads the group. He is the younger brother of Yokota Megumi, who was abducted at the age of 13. Iizuka Koichiro also took part. His mother Taguchi Yaeko was abducted when he was 1 year old.
The group is urging the government to realize the return of all the abductees while their parents and other relatives of that generation are still alive. The group emphasized this point in Saturday's petition campaign.
Japan's government has so far recognized 17 citizens as having been abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 80s. Five returned home following a bilateral summit in 2002, but the other 12 are unaccounted for.
The mother of Yokota Megumi, 89-year-old Yokota Sakie, is now the only surviving parent of the 12 unaccounted for victims.
Arimoto Akihiro, whose daughter Keiko was also abducted and has not returned, died in February at the age of 96.
Yokota Takuya said parents of the abductees have died one after another and their families have little time left to see the return of their loved ones. He stressed the importance of the group's efforts to appeal to the public, the Japanese government and North Korean authorities.
Families of the abductees plan to visit Washington next week and meet with senior officials of President Donald Trump's administration to ask for cooperation in resolving the abduction issue.
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