NAKRN
The National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea or NARKN (北朝鮮に拉致された日本人を救出するための全国協議会 or simply 救う会全国協議会) was established in 1998. The purpose of NARKN is to help the families of Japanese victims kidnapped by North Korea, who campaign for the return of their loved ones in North Korea between the 1970s and 1980s. The chairman of NARKN is Tsutomu Nishioka, a professor of Tokyo Christian University. People * Yokota family ** Sakie and Shiguru Yokota (parents of Megumi Yokota) ** Takyua and Tatusya Yokota (brothers of Megumi Yokota) *Shingo Izuka (brother of Yaeko Taguchi is a Japanese citizen, one of several kidnapped by North Korea in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Abduction Taguchi worked as a bar hostess in Tokyo, Japan, to raise her two children, a one-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, after divor ...) References External links Official Japanese Website Human rights in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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North Korean Abductions Of Japanese Citizens
Abductions of Japanese citizens from Japan by agents of the North Korean government took place during a period of six years from 1977 to 1983. Although only 17 Japanese (eight men and nine women) are officially recognized by the Japanese government as having been abducted, there may have been hundreds of others. The North Korean government has officially admitted to abducting 13 Japanese citizens. There are testimonies that many non-Japanese citizens, including eight citizens from European countries and one from the Middle East, have been abducted by North Korea. Background In the 1970s, a number of Japanese citizens disappeared from coastal areas in Japan. The people who had disappeared were average Japanese people who were opportunistically abducted by operatives lying in wait. Although North Korean agents were suspected, the opinion that North Korea had nothing to do with the disappearances was widely held. Most of the missing were in their 20s; the youngest, Megumi Yokota, w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tsutomu Nishioka
Tsutomu Nishioka (西岡 力, Nishioka Tsutomu, born 1956 in Tokyo) is a professor of International Christian Studies at Tokyo Christian University. He specializes in Japan-Korean relations, South Korea/North Korea Studies. His research focuses on the Comfort women and the North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens. He is a chairman of the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea (NARKN). Academic career He graduated from Tokyo Christian University in 1979 and earned a master's degree in International Area Studies from the graduate school of University of Tsukuba in 1983. He studied at the International Division in Yonsei University from 1977 to 1978. He worked at the Embassy of Japan in South Korea as a special researcher for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1982 to 1984. He was an Editor in Chief of the ''Gendai Korea'' (Today's Korea) journal from 1990 to 2002. In 2016, he started working as a guest professor for Reitaku University. Wor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tokyo Christian University
is a private university in Inzai, Chiba, Japan, offering an undergraduate liberal arts degree in both Japanese and English. TCU is the only evangelical university fully accredited by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). History Tokyo TCU's history spans 125 years of Japan's 140-year Protestant history. The university emerged from a merger of three Christian schools. The oldest, founded in 1881 in Yokohama, focused on women's education at a time when Japan offered women few opportunities for higher education. In 1949 Tokyo Christian Theological Seminary came into existence, and 1950 saw the establishment of the Japan Domei Institute. The Domei Institute later offered both a three- and a four-year course, achieving accreditation as a junior college. These three schools merged in 1979, with the goal of upgrading the junior college into a university while maintaining the seminary as a distinct graduate program with its own identity ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yokota Family
The Yokota family, husband Shigeru (November 14, 1932 – June 5, 2020) and wife Sakie (born February 4, 1936) along with their twin sons Takuya and Tetsuya founded the Japanese National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea in 1997. The Association supports the victims of North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Yokotas' daughter Megumi was kidnapped in 1977 by North Korean spies; her current whereabouts are unknown. Sakie Yokota once met with U.S. President George W. Bush to talk about demanding sanctions on North Korea and in 2013 she testified about her daughter's abduction. In 2014, the Yokotas met Megumi's Korean daughter. Also in 2014, Sakie Yokota met U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss the case of her daughter and other abductees. The meeting came after a press conference Obama held with then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. During the meeting, Obama said he was "moved by their tragic experiences." On S ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Megumi Yokota
(born 5 October 1964) is a Japanese citizen who was abducted by a North Korean agent in 1977 when she was a thirteen-year-old junior high school student. She was one of at least seventeen Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The North Korean government has admitted to kidnapping Yokota, but has said that she died in captivity. Yokota's parents and others in Japan have publicly expressed the belief that she is still alive in North Korea and have waged a public campaign seeking her return to Japan. History Megumi Yokota was abducted on 15 November 1977 at the age of thirteen while walking home from school in her seaside village in Niigata Prefecture. It's believed that she was abducted because she happened to witness activities of North Korean agents in Japan and so the agents wanted to silence her. North Korean agents reportedly dragged her into a boat and took her straight to North Korea to a facility, where she was taught the Korean lan ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yaeko Taguchi
is a Japanese citizen, one of several kidnapped by North Korea in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Abduction Taguchi worked as a bar hostess in Tokyo, Japan, to raise her two children, a one-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, after divorcing her husband. She disappeared in June 12, 1978, at the age of 22, after dropping her children off at a day care centre. She was forced to help train North Korean spy Kim Hyon Hui, the surviving bomber of Korean Air Flight 858.Suspected Abduction Cases by North Korea "Lee Un Hae" Case National Police Agency 警察庁 In 2002, North Korea admitted that she and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Human Rights In North Korea
The human rights record of North Korea is often considered to be the worst in the world and has been globally condemned, with the United Nations, the European Union and groups such as Human Rights Watch all critical of the country's record. Most international human rights organizations consider North Korea to have no contemporary parallel with respect to violations of liberty. Western human rights groups such as Amnesty International and nations such as the United States have asserted that, in practice, there is no right to free speech, and the only media providers that are deemed legal are those operated by the government in North Korea. According to reports from Amnesty International and the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, by 2017 an estimated 200,000 prisoners were incarcerated in camps that are dedicated to political crimes, and subjected to forced labour, physical abuse, and execution. The North Korean government strictly monitors the activities of for ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |