Japan PM honors policeman, U.N. volunteer killed in Cambodia

By Chie Morifuji / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

13:18 JST, March 21, 2022

PHNOM PENH — Prime Minister Fumio Kishida laid flowers at memorial monuments in Phnom Penh on Sunday for Atsuhito Nakata, a Japanese volunteer who worked for a U.N. election-monitoring program in Cambodia, and Haruyuki Takata, a police officer who was participating in a U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country.

Nakata, then 25, and Takata, then 33, were killed in armed attacks in Cambodia in April and May 1993, respectively, the year after Japan started sending Self-Defense Forces personnel to U.N. peacekeeping operations in the country.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the deployment.