Â鶹´«Ã½

Tag - north-korea-japan-relations

 
Â鶹´«Ã½
Search
 
August 14, 2026
 

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

NORTH KOREA-JAPAN RELATIONS

A banner calling for the resolution of the issue of abductions by North Korea is displayed near the Diet building in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on June 10.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2025
Families of Japanese abductees race against time
Negotiations between Japan and North Korea have remained at a standstill since October 2002, when five victims were repatriated.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba meets with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on the sidelines of the Group of Seven leaders' summit in Kananaskis in Alberta, Canada, on June 17.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 27, 2025
Japan-North Korea engagement possible with Lee in power
South Korea¡¯s new president opens a window for Japan to rethink its stalled North Korea diplomacy with a more strategic approach.
Sakie Yokota, mother of a North Korean abduction victim, said she feels "great loneliness" after the death of her husband, whom she described as a "serious person."
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2025
Mother of North Korean abductee urges government to have sense of mission over issue
Her husband, Shigeru, died in 2020 at the age of 87 without being able to see his abducted daughter again.
Sakie Yokota (center) and other family members of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea held a national rally in Tokyo on Saturday to demand the immediate return of all abductees.
JAPAN
May 25, 2025
Families demand North Korea return all Japanese abductees
The rally, organized mainly by the family group and an organization supporting such families, brought together about 800 people, including lawmakers.
Takuya Yokota speaks during a news conference in Washington on Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 5, 2025
Relatives urge North Korea to release abductees
The news conference was held after members of the association returned from a trip to the United States.
A group of families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea decades ago and a group of Japanese lawmakers tackling the abduction issue at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2025
Families of abductees in North Korea meet with U.S. official
¡°We reiterated that there is not much time left for the generation of the abductees¡¯ parents,¡± said Takuya Yokota, head of the family group.
Takuya Yokota, the leader of a group of families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago (left), asks people for signatures to seek their return during a campaign held in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2025
Family members of North Korea abductees hold Tokyo campaign to seek their return
Meanwhile, in Washington, 17 members of U.S. Congress sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to ¡°prioritize¡± the return of the Japanese abductees.
Classmates and others planted cherry trees on Thursday in the city of Niigata, praying for the swift return of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korea.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2025
Abductee Megumi Yokota¡¯s classmates donate cherry trees to school
Megumi¡¯s father, Shigeru, photographed her standing in front of cherry trees at Yorii junior high school seven months before she was kidnapped.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks during a news conference on Tuesday at the Prime Minister's Office. Hayashi has cited Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile development programs as well as its abduction of Japanese nationals as reasons for Japan's extension of sanctions on North Korea.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 8, 2025
Japan to extend sanctions against North Korea for two years
Pyongyang¡¯s nuclear weapons and missile development programs, and its abduction of Japanese nationals were cited as reasons.
Two Japanese men are suspected of helping an IT worker from North Korea create an account for a job-matching service by sending driver's license photos and other information to the IT worker in September and October 2020.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 8, 2025
Pair suspected of helping North Korean IT worker pose as a Japanese citizen
Police in Tokyo believe the IT worker was involved in North Korea¡¯s efforts to obtain foreign currency.
Kaoru Hasuike, who was abducted by North Korea before returning to Japan, speaks on Wednesday in Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2025
Former abductee urges Japan to work with U.S. to press North Korea
Kaoru Hasuike said that the abduction issue ¡°has not been resolved.¡±
Akihiro Arimoto (left), accompanied by his wife, Kayoko, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo in 2002. Arimoto, the father of a girl who was spirited away to North Korea more than four decades ago and remains unaccounted for, died late Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2025
Akihiro Arimoto, father of girl abducted by North Korea in 1983, dies
His death at the age of 96 is a sign of how long the issue has dragged on, with most parents of abductees having now died without finding out what happened to their loved ones.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba raised North Korea's past abduction of Japanese nationals during his first face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2025
Head of abductees¡¯ families relieved over Japan-U.S. talks
Takuya Yokota, 56, is a brother of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korea in 1977 when she was just 13 years old.
Sakie Yokota speaks to reporters at the Prime Minister's Office on Jan. 10 after meeting with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2025
Abductee families seek pressure on North Korea as Trump returns
A leader of a group of North Korean abductee families called on the government to deepen the bond between their leaders.
People hold an anti-Japan rally in Seoul in July 2019 following Tokyo's decision to tighten controls on exports to South Korea.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2025
North Korea incited anti-Japan sentiment in the South
North Korea aimed to fan the flames of anti-Japanese sentiment over issues like wartime labor and the release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks with students from Okayama University about the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens decades ago, in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 14, 2024
Japan ready to team up with Trump over North Korea abduction issue
In a symposium on the issue held by the Japanese government in Tokyo, Hayashi condemned North Korea, saying, ¡°In essence, it is an infringement of national sovereignty.¡±
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks on Saturday in Tokyo at a rally that was held by a group of families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago to demand the immediate return of all abductees.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 24, 2024
Ishiba shelves proposal for liaison offices with North Korea amid rising tensions
The Prime Minister has expressed his commitment to resolving the abduction issue, as well as his willingness to hold talks with Kim Jong Un.
Sakie Yokota, 88, speaks during a news conference in Kawasaki on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2024
Mother of North Korea abductee laments lack of progress over issue
¡°I wonder why this issue has dragged on so long,¡± said 88-year-old Sakie Yokota. Her daughter, Megumi Yokota, went missing 47 years ago.
Toshiyuki Mimaki, director of Hiroshima Hidankyo and a co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, hopes the U.S. will strive for a world free of nuclear weapons.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 7, 2024
With Trump¡¯s return, Japanese advocacy groups seek renewed U.S. support
Groups representing atomic bomb survivors and the families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea hope the new administration will back their causes.
Sakie Yokota, the mother of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents decades ago, meets with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2024
Ishiba meets families of North Korean abductees for first time as PM
The prime minister expressed a willingness to hold talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to resolve the abductions.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
New ¡®Katsu Curry Index¡¯ aims to show how weak the yen really is
A CoCo Ichibanya curry house in Tokyo.
Mexican man arrested over attempt to smuggle some 200 lizards into Japan
Mexican alligator lizards seized by Tokyo Customs from a Mexican man who attempted to smuggle them into Japan on Saturday through Haneda Airport
Gut bacteria may be behind many of Â鶹´«Ã½ colorectal cancer cases
A Japanese research team found that a toxin produced by certain E. coli strains, colibactin, caused genetic mutations in nearly half of colorectal cancer cases studied
She is Russia¡¯s richest woman. Her business empire is going up in flames.
Tatyana Kim, the head and co-founder of Wildberries, speaks about Ukrainian drone attacks on the company's warehouses in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at an unidentified location, in this still image from a handout video released on July 31.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
Ikarigata closer to emulating older brother Fujinokawa than many think
The future Fujinokawa (third from left) and Ikarigata (right) compete against each other at ages 5 and 3, respectively.
Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?
The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that allows burials, albeit with conditions for the deceased, including foreign nationality and permanent residency in Kanagawa Prefecture.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
As Â鶹´«Ã½ concrete jungles sizzle, urban forestry offers an all-natural fix
People and birds find relief from the sun in Tokyo's Nakano Ward earlier this month. While experts agree that urban greening is crucial to mitigating the impact of climate change, trees are becoming even more scarce in Japanese cities.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER