NIIGATA (The Thursday Times) — The mother of Megumi Yokota, the Japanese schoolgirl abducted by North Korea in 1977, renewed her plea for her daughter’s return on Saturday, a day before the 49th anniversary of the kidnapping, saying an “unimaginably long period” had passed since Megumi disappeared at the age of 13.
“I’m always thinking about what her life might be like,” Sakie Yokota, 90, told a rally in Niigata, which she joined by video link. “Although I can’t push myself because I’m 90 years old now, I’m doing my best, praying for a reunion while I’m fine.”
Megumi was snatched on the evening of November 15, 1977, as she walked home from school in the city of Niigata on the Sea of Japan coast. She would now be 62.
About 700 people attended Saturday’s rally, which called for stepped-up efforts to bring her home.
Sons press for a summit
Megumi’s younger brother Takuya Yokota, 58, who heads the Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, said his sister had never aged in his mind. “In my memory, Megumi still remains 13 years old, so I can’t imagine what she looks like now at the age of 62,” he said, urging the government to secure a summit with North Korea.
His twin, Tetsuya, made the same point. “This is an issue that can be solved at the summit level, not at the working level,” he told the gathering.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has pledged to achieve a “breakthrough” on the issue while in office and has said she hopes to meet North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
Seventeen names on Japan’s list
Japan officially lists 17 citizens as abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, some of them to teach the North’s spies Japanese language and customs. Five were allowed to return home in 2002 after a summit in Pyongyang. North Korea says Megumi and seven others died, an account Tokyo has never accepted, and the Japanese government also suspects Pyongyang’s involvement in many other disappearances.
One of the five who came home, Hitomi Soga, 67, is still waiting for her mother, who was abducted with her in 1978. “I cannot sit still thinking about how she might be spending each day,” she told reporters after the rally, adding that she would keep praying for her mother’s return.
Megumi’s father, Shigeru, died in 2020 without seeing his daughter again. Sakie is now the last surviving parent of an abductee on Japan’s official list.
