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Ex-abductee seeks early return of remaining abductees

Former Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga (R) collects signatures in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, on Oct. 5, 2025, calling for new Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi to pave the way for holding direct negotiations with North Korea to bring back all the remaining abductees, including her mother, to Japan. Soga, 66, returned from North Korea in 2002 following a Japan-North Korea summit in Pyongyang.

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Ex-abductee seeks early return of remaining abductees

Former Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga (R) collects signatures in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, on Oct. 5, 2025, calling for new Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi to pave the way for holding direct negotiations with North Korea to bring back all the remaining abductees, including her mother, to Japan. Soga, 66, returned from North Korea in 2002 following a Japan-North Korea summit in Pyongyang.

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Ex-abductee seeks early return of remaining abductees

Former Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga (L) collects signatures in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, on Oct. 5, 2025, calling for new Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi to pave the way for holding direct negotiations with North Korea to bring back all the remaining abductees, including her mother, to Japan. Soga, 66, returned from North Korea in 2002 following a Japan-North Korea summit in Pyongyang.

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Japanese ex-abductee Soga

Former Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga speaks during an interview in her hometown Sado, Niigata Prefecture, on Dec. 18, 2024. Soga, 65, was abducted to North Korea in 1978 before being repatriated in 2002.

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Japanese ex-abductee at rally in northeastern Japan

Former Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga speaks during a rally in Akita city, northeastern Japan, partly hosted by Akita Prefecture on Nov. 30, 2024, to call for the return of Japanese abducted by North Korea. Soga, 65, was abducted to North Korea in 1978 before being repatriated in 2002.

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Ex-abductee calls for return of other abduction victims

NIIGATA, Japan - Hitomi Soga (C), a Japanese national who was abducted by North Korea, asks people to sign a petition for the return of other abduction victims including her mother in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, in April 2014.

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Ex-abductee Soga's family arrives at Haneda, July 2004

TOKYO, Japan - Former abductee by North Korea Hitomi Soga (C), her husband Charles Jenkins and their first and second daughters Mika (L) and Brinda (back) arrive at Haneda airport in Tokyo in July 2004.

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Ex-abductee's husband

NIIGATA, Japan - Charles Jenkins, a former U.S. deserter who married Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga in North Korea in 1980, speaks during an interview in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, on Sept. 29, 2012.

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Ex-abductee Hasuike wins nonfiction award

TOKYO, Japan - Repatriated abductee Kaoru Hasuike (file photo) won an award Aug. 27, 2009, for a nonfiction work that features his experience of being abducted to North Korea and living in the reclusive country. Hasuike went missing along with his girlfriend, Yukiko Okudo, in Niigata Prefecture in July 1978, and returned to Japan in October 2002 with Okudo, to whom he got married in North Korea, after Pyongyang admitted to past abductions of Japanese citizens.

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Ex-abductee Soga's husband Jenkins promotes Sado rice

TOKYO, Japan - Charles Jenkins (R), the 67-year-old husband of former abductee Hitomi Soga, participated in a event in Tokyo on Nov. 9 to help promote organic rice from Sado, an island in Niigata Prefecture where the couple now live after being allowed to leave North Korea.

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Ex-abductee Soga voices gratitude for support

SADO, Japan - Former abductee Hitomi Soga speaks at a news conference in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, on Oct. 17 as she marks the fifth anniversary of her repatriation from North Korea. Soga and four other Japanese abductees, abducted by North Korean agents in three separate cases in 1978 from Niigata and Fukui prefectures, were repatriated to Japan on Oct. 15, 2002.

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Ex-abductee Chimura serves as Japanese-Korean interpreter

OBAMA, Japan - Yasushi Chimura (R), who was abducted by North Korea in 1978 and repatriated to Japan in 2002, serves as a Japanese-Korean interpreter for the first time in a public event in Obama, Fukui Prefecture on Oct. 11. Working for his employer, Obama Mayor Toshio Murakami, the 48-year-old Chimura translated his address to roughly 90 participants in a gathering on Japan-Korea friendship.

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Ex-abductee Soga's husband Jenkins promotes Sado rice

TOKYO, Japan - Charles Jenkins (R), the 67-year-old husband of former abductee Hitomi Soga, participated in a event in Tokyo on Nov. 9 to help promote organic rice from Sado, an island in Niigata Prefecture where the couple now live after being allowed to leave North Korea. (Kyodo)

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Ex-abductee to North Korea gives lecture

Hitomi Soga, who was abducted to North Korea in 1978 and returned to Japan in 2002, gives a lecture at a high school in the central Japan city of Niigata on Dec. 3, 2015. Soga recounted stories of spending time with Megumi Yokota, a Japanese girl abducted in 1977 at age 13 and who remains missing, and emphasized the need for a swift resolution to help those who have been abducted and wish to return home. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-abductee Hasuike recounts years in N. Korea

Former abductee Kaoru Hasuike tells of his years in North Korea at a seminar for college students in Taku in Saga Prefecture in southwestern Japan on Oct. 3, 2015. The seminar was the first collaborative event between the Japanese government and colleges over the issue of abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-abductee Hasuike speaks in Fukuoka

Kaoru Hasuike, one of the Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea and returned to Japan, speaks in Fukuoka on Sept. 9, 2015. He said a "carrot and stick" approach is necessary in dealing with North Korea to resolve the abduction issue. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-abductee to N. Korea recounts her ordeal

Hitomi Soga, who was abducted to North Korea in 1978 and now lives in Japan since returning home in 2002, recounts her experience in the communist country at a meeting in Saitama, north of Tokyo, on Sept. 5, 2015. She emphasized the need for remembering those who have been kidnapped to North Korea and who wish to return home. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-abductee renews call for early return of other victims from N. Korea

Kaoru Hasuike, a Japanese national who was abducted and held by North Korea for more than 20 years before being repatriated in 2002, calls for the early return of other abductees in a speech in Hannan, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, on July 14, 2015. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-abductee slams N. Korea for trying to dodge abduction issue

Kaoru Hasuike, abducted by North Korea and forced to live there for over 20 years before being repatriated to Japan in 2002, slams Pyongyang for trying to dodge the issue of abductions and failing to present findings about victims who have yet to be returned in a speech in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture, eastern Japan on April 5, 2015. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-abductee urges gov't to be more active in abduction cases

Kaoru Hasuike, abducted by North Korea and forced to stay there for more than 20 years before being repatriated in 2002, calls on the Japanese government to take initiative in solving all abduction cases in a speech in Miyazaki, southwestern Japan, on Feb. 1, 2015. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-abductee seeks support to solve abduction issue

Kaoru Hasuike, who was abducted by North Korea in 1978 and was returned to Japan in 2002, speaks in Kawasaki, southwest of Tokyo, on Oct. 27, 2015. He said many people's assistance is needed to bring back Japanese abductees in Pyongyang. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-abductee Soga urges support for rescue of detainees in N. Korea

Hitomi Soga (R), who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1978 and spent decades there before being repatriated in 2002, hands out pamphlets to passersby at a signature-collecting rally in Niigata, northwestern Japan, on May 31, 2015, calling for the early rescue of other missing Japanese believed to be in that country. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-abductee Soga speaks to press during rally

Hitomi Soga, a repatriated Japanese woman who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1978, speaks to the press during a rally on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, on April 26, 2015, calling for the return of other abductees. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-abductee Hasuike wins nonfiction award

TOKYO, Japan - Repatriated abductee Kaoru Hasuike (file photo) won an award Aug. 27, 2009, for a nonfiction work that features his experience of being abducted to North Korea and living in the reclusive country. Hasuike went missing along with his girlfriend, Yukiko Okudo, in Niigata Prefecture in July 1978, and returned to Japan in October 2002 with Okudo, to whom he got married in North Korea, after Pyongyang admitted to past abductions of Japanese citizens. (Kyodo)

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Ex-abductee Soga voices gratitude for support

SADO, Japan - Former abductee Hitomi Soga speaks at a news conference in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, on Oct. 17 as she marks the fifth anniversary of her repatriation from North Korea. Soga and four other Japanese abductees, abducted by North Korean agents in three separate cases in 1978 from Niigata and Fukui prefectures, were repatriated to Japan on Oct. 15, 2002. (Kyodo)

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Ex-abductee calls for return of other abduction victims

NIIGATA, Japan - Hitomi Soga (C), a Japanese national who was abducted by North Korea, asks people to sign a petition for the return of other abduction victims including her mother in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, in April 2014. (Kyodo)

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Ex-abductee Soga

Hitomi Soga, a former Japanese abductee to North Korea, answers reporters' questions after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the premier's office in Tokyo on July 5, 2018. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-abductee and Japan PM Abe

Hitomi Soga (L), a former Japanese abductee to North Korea, meets Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the premier's office in Tokyo on July 5, 2018. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Jenkins, husband of Japanese ex-abductee to N. Korea, dies at 77

File photo taken in July 2004 shows former U.S. Army sergeant Charles Jenkins (front R) and his wife Hitomi Soga (C), a former Japanese abductee to North Korea, arriving at Tokyo's Haneda airport with their two North Korean-born daughters. Jenkins died in Japan on Dec. 11, 2017, at age 77 of unknown causes, according to sources familiar with the matter. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Ex-abductee Chimura serves as Japanese-Korean interpreter

OBAMA, Japan - Yasushi Chimura (R), who was abducted by North Korea in 1978 and repatriated to Japan in 2002, serves as a Japanese-Korean interpreter for the first time in a public event in Obama, Fukui Prefecture on Oct. 11. Working for his employer, Obama Mayor Toshio Murakami, the 48-year-old Chimura translated his address to roughly 90 participants in a gathering on Japan-Korea friendship. (Kyodo)