Sakie Yokota, whose daughter Megumi was abducted by North Korea from Niigata in 1977, said on Thursday she still wants to see her daughter once, as the 49th anniversary of the abduction approaches on November 15.
"I want to see her. Once is enough," Yokota, 90, told reporters in Kawasaki, and called for a Japan-North Korea summit to be held soon. Megumi was 13 when she disappeared.
On November 14, 1977, her father's birthday, Megumi gave Shigeru Yokota a comb. Sakie Yokota still remembers the exchange: "Be a little more stylish from now on," her daughter said, and her father replied, "I'll dress up properly."
Shigeru Yokota died in 2020 at 87. "We were an ordinary family, just like everyone else," Sakie Yokota said. The next day, November 15, Megumi vanished on her way home from junior high school.
The family's rescue efforts have not brought a reunion. Other parents of abductees have also died without one, and no Japanese abductee has returned home through negotiations in the 49 years since Megumi disappeared.
Hitomi Soga, who was abducted in 1978 and returned to Japan in 2002, also spoke about the issue, telling an audience in Matsuyama that the abduction issue must not be allowed to fade from memory, according to reports.