VOL.203 MAY 2025
[SPRING SPECIAL ISSUE] VARIOUS VARIETIES OF CHERRY BLOSSOMS IN JAPAN (PART 2): ADMIRING THE CHERRY BLOSSOMS AT CASTLES IN JAPAN
[POLICY RELATED NEWS] Abductions of Japanese Citizens by North Korea
Prime Minister ISHIBA held a meeting with families of abductees, at Prime Minister’s office Tokyo Chiyoda City, February 2025
Photo : Cabinet Public Affairs Office
The abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korea have robbed the victims and their families of their loved ones and their lives. This issue has yet to be resolved, despite government’s initiatives over the years to rescue them and clarify the full extent of the abductions and despite the intense efforts by their families. The abductees and their families are aging. The abductions issue is a humanitarian and time-sensitive issue with no time to spare, and is a top priority issue for the current ISHIBA Shigeru administration. The Government of Japan (GoJ) will do its utmost to achieve the immediate return of all abductees.
What is the abductions issue?
North Korea has kidnapped many Japanese citizens to North Korea against their will. Some were abducted in Japan, and others outside of Japan.1 After so many years of denial, Kim Jong-il, then-Chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea admitted the abductions of Japanese citizens and apologized at the meeting with KOIZUMI Junichiro, then-Prime Minister of Japan, in September 2002. 17 Japanese citizens are identified by the GoJ as victims of abduction by North Korea. Of those, only five have returned to Japan, but 12 abductees still have not returned home.
With the recognition that there are other cases in which the possibility of abduction by North Korea cannot be ruled out, the GoJ has been making concerted efforts to demand North Korea to return all the abductees, whether or not they are officially identified as such, back to Japan immediately.
Photo : Cabinet Public Affairs Office
Why are there abductees who cannot come back to Japan?
It is suspected that North Korea considers it risky that inconvenient facts about the country such as committing espionage and terrorist activities will be revealed by returning the abductees to Japan. The full truth behind the abductions remains unclear, and nothing can be said definitively at this point, but it is deemed that the purpose of the abductions by North Korea was for disguising North Korean agents as Japanese citizens and forcing abductees to train North Korean agents to act as Japanese.
Until now, North Korea has been claiming that it has already returned all the surviving abductees to Japan, that the remaining abductees have either died or never entered its territory, and that the abductions issue have therefore already been resolved. However, North Korea has only provided extremely unnatural and thoroughly unconvincing evidence of the “death” of the abductees. For more details on North Korea’s claims and points of contention with them, see the brochure on website “For the Return of All of the Abductees”
Involvement of the International Community
Abductions by North Korea constitutes a universal issue among the international community as a violation of fundamental human rights. The international community demands that North Korea immediately resolve the abductions issue. Every year, the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN) adopt the Resolutions on the Situation of Human Rights in the DPRK that mention the abductions issue. In addition, the UN has organized a Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Human Rights in North Korea, which in its final report in February 2014, pointed out that the victims of abduction by North Korea are not only from Japan but also from many other countries.2
The importance of resolving the abductions issue and GoJ’s efforts towards this end have gained the clear understanding and support of other nations. For example, since North Korea first admitted the abductions of Japanese citizens in 2002, successive U.S. presidents have met with the family members of abductees and have repeatedly confirmed their cooperation on this issue at the leader’s level. At the first Summit Meeting in February 2025, ISHIBA Shigeru, Prime Minister of Japan asked for the continued understanding and cooperation of the U.S. for the immediate resolution of the abductions issue, and gained full support from President Trump.
Country names in this article are abbreviated.
- 1. For example, YOKOTA Megumi was abducted near her home in Niigata Prefecture while walking home from her junior high school in 1977. ARIMOTO Keiko was abducted in 1983 while she studied in Europe.
- 2. Countries such as the Republic of Korea, Lebanon, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Romania, France, Italy, the Netherlands and China.
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More details on the abductions issue can be found on the “Abductions of Japanese Citizens by North Korea” webpage operated by the Headquarters for the Abduction Issue, Government of Japan