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
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
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
to talk about demanding sanctions on
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
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
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
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
Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍 晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...
. During the meeting, Obama said he was "moved by their tragic experiences."
On September 19, 2017, President of the United States
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, included Yokota in a series of accusations against the North Korean government, saying, "We know it kidnapped a sweet
13-year-old Japanese girl from a beach in her own country to enslave her as a language tutor for North Korea's spies."
On June 5, 2020, Shigeru Yokota died at age 87. He had been hospitalized in Kawasaki for more than two years. On October 24, 2020, former Prime Minister Abe and Prime Minister
Yoshihide Suga
is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2020 to 2021. He had served as Chief Cabinet Secretary during the second administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fro ...
attended a memorial service for Shigeru, where Suga praised him and said he would "take the lead in making a breakthrough (on the abductees issue), without missing any opportunity."
See also
*
North Korean abductions of Japanese
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 governm ...
* ''
Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story''
* ''
Megumi (manga)
is a manga based on the life of Megumi Yokota, a Japanese girl who was abducted when she was 13 years old by North Korean spies in 1977. The manga concept was conceived by her mother and father and was penned by Souichi Moto under their supe ...
''
References
External links
NARKN website
By Kosuke Takahashi
is a Japanese journalist. He contributes to IHS Jane's Defence, NK News and Toyo Keizai Online among other media by writing in both English and Japanese. He is also currently a regular TV commentator of Tokyo MX's Morning Cross program. He worke ...
of Asia Times Online
''Asia Times'' (), formerly known as ''Asia Times Online'', is a Hong Kong-based English language news media publishing group, covering politics, economics, business and culture from an Asian perspective. ''Asia Times'' publishes in English an ...
, April 28, 2009.
Japanese families
Japanese human rights activists
North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens
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