Japanese Mother of Abductee Frustrated by Lack of Resolution to Issue; No Abductees Have Returned to Japan from North Korea Since 2002

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:32 JST, June 4, 2025

KAWASAKI — The mother of a Japanese woman abducted by North Korea said she is saddened by the absence of her husband and frustrated at “not being able to resolve the situation.”

Sakie Yokota, 89, spoke at a press conference in Kawasaki, where she lives, on Tuesday, two days before the fifth anniversary of her husband Shigeru’s death. Their daughter Megumi was kidnapped when she was 13.

Shigeru became the first representative of the Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, which was formed in 1997. Shigeru traveled across the country, making appeals to resolve the issue. However, he was never able to reunite with his daughter.

On Tuesday, Yokota recalled how her husband always ate the food she prepared and told her how delicious it was.

“[Shigeru] talked to me about everything,” she said. “He was a very kind person.”

Regarding the abductees, five returned to Japan in October 2002, but since then, not a single person has been returned.

Yokota said she talks to Shigeru’s photo, which she keeps in the living room, every day. She tells him, “It has been so long and there has been no change.”

Akihiro Arimoto, the father of another abductee Keiko Arimoto, who was abducted when she was 23, died in February at 96, leaving Yokota as the only member of abductees’ parents’ generation still alive.

“I don’t know if I will ever be able to see [Megumi] again either,” Yokota said. “I hope the government will work on the issue more seriously.”