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U.S. ready to help Japan resolve N. Korean abduction issue

TOKYO, Japan - Eriko Yamatani (L), minister in charge of the issue of North Korea's past abductions of Japanese nationals, shakes hands with Robert King, U.S. special envoy for human rights issues, in Tokyo on Nov. 10, 2014. King said Washington stands ready to help Tokyo resolve the abduction issue.

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Ex-head of U.N. panel on DPRK human rights meets abductee kin

TOKYO, Japan - Michael Kirby (R), former chief of a U.N. commission investigating North Korean human rights violations, meets Eriko Yamatani, state minister in charge of the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang agents, at the Cabinet Office in Tokyo on Oct. 21, 2014, shortly before meeting a group of Japanese abductees' relatives.

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3 female ministers visit Yasukuni

TOKYO, Japan - Eriko Yamatani, chairwoman of the National Public Safety Commission, visits the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Oct. 18, 2014, on the occasion of its autumn festival. Two other female Cabinet ministers also visited there, a move that will likely draw criticism from China and South Korea.

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Abductee's mother urges review of gov't stance at N. Korea talks

TOKYO, Japan - Sakie Yokota (2nd from R), the mother of Megumi Yokota who remains missing after being abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 at age 13, speaks in Tokyo on Oct. 16, 2014, at a meeting with a league of parliamentarians pressing for the abductees' safe return. Also pictured are Eriko Yamatani (R), state minister in charge of the abduction issue, and Teruaki Masumoto (2nd from L), secretary general of the Japanese Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea.

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Abductees' kin oppose N. Korea trip by Japanese officials

TOKYO, Japan - Teruaki Masumoto (L), secretary general of the Japanese Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, hands a petition to Eriko Yamatani, state minister in charge of the abduction issue, in Tokyo on Oct. 16, 2014, to convey the group's opposition to a proposed trip for Japanese government officials to visit North Korea on a fact-finding mission.

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Minister in photo with anti-Korean residents' group member

TOKYO, Japan - National Public Safety Commission Chairwoman Eriko Yamatani holds a press conference at the National Police Agency in Tokyo on Sept. 18, 2014. Yamatani admitted that she had a photo taken in 2009 with a former member of a civic group against privileges for Korean residents in Japan without knowing it.

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Japan abduction minister calls for N. Korea's response

GENEVA, Switzerland - Eriko Yamatani, Japan's state minister in charge of the abduction issue, says in her keynote speech at an international symposium at the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva on Sept. 10, 2014, that North Korea must take serious and concrete steps to solve its past abductions of Japanese nationals while holding a picture of Megumi Yokota, one of the Japanese abductees.

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Abe reshuffles Cabinet

TOKYO, Japan - Eriko Yamatani, newly appointed as chair of the National Public Safety Commission and minister in charge of the abduction issue, enters the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Sept. 3, 2014.

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10 Japanese land on disputed Senkakus

ISHIGAKI, Japan - Eriko Yamatani, a member of the House of Councillors, offers a sacred tree on the morning of Aug. 19, 2012, during a ceremony to remember the victims of U.S. attacks in 1945 on vessels near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Later that morning, 10 Japanese landed on Uotsuri Island, one of the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, which are at the center of a territorial row with China.

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4 lawmakers leave DPJ to join new party

TOKYO, Japan - Four House of Representatives members planning to join a new party give a news conference Dec. 24 after submitting letters of resignation to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. They are (from L to R) Eriko Yamatani, Takao Sato, Hiroshi Kumagai and Zenjiro Kaneko.

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(2)4 lawmakers leave DPJ to join new party

TOKYO, Japan - (From L to R) Eriko Yamatani, Takao Sato, Hiroshi Kumagai and Zenjiro KanekoFour, all House of Representatives members planning to form a new party pose for a photograph after submitting letters of resignation to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan.

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4 lawmakers leave DPJ to join new party

TOKYO, Japan - Four House of Representatives members planning to join a new party give a news conference Dec. 24 after submitting letters of resignation to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. They are (from L to R) Eriko Yamatani, Takao Sato, Hiroshi Kumagai and Zenjiro Kaneko. (Kyodo)

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Popular local mascots form team to promote tsunami disaster prevention

Popular local mascot characters strike a pose with disaster management state minister Eriko Yamatani at the Cabinet Office in Tokyo on Sept. 7, 2015, to announce the launch of their team to promote awareness among the public to prevent and prepare for tsunami disasters. (From L) Shinjo-kun representing Susaki in Kochi Prefecture; Chicchai Ossan of Amagasaki in Hyogo Prefecture; Funasshi of Funahashi, Chiba Prefecture; Yamatani; Kumamon of Kumamoto Prefecture; and Kii-chan of Wakayama Prefecture. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Disaster drills held across Japan

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (L) attends a press conference, together with Eriko Yamatani, disaster management minister, at his office in Tokyo on Sept. 1, 2015, National Disaster Prevention Day, when disaster drills were held across Japan. Abe said his disaster policies place maximum priority on human life. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Abe sends offering as 3 Cabinet ministers visit war-linked shrine

Eriko Yamatani, chairwoman of Japan's National Public Safety Commission, visits the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15, 2015, the 70th anniversary of the country's surrender in World War II. Also visiting the shrine from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet were Sanae Takaichi, internal affairs minister, and Haruko Arimura, minister in charge of female empowerment. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Abe sends offering as Cabinet ministers visit war-linked shrine

Sanae Takaichi, Japan's minister for internal affairs and communications, visits the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15, 2015, the 70th anniversary of the country's surrender in World War II. Also visiting the shrine were Haruko Arimura, minister in charge of female empowerment, and Eriko Yamatani, chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Abe sends offering as Cabinet ministers visit war-linked shrine

Haruko Arimura, Japan's minister in charge of female empowerment, visits the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Aug. 15, 2015, the 70th anniversary of the country's surrender in World War II. Also visiting the shrine were Sanae Takaichi, internal affairs minister, and Eriko Yamatani, chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Parents of abductee Megumi Yokota hand petition to Yamatani

Shigeru Yokota (C) and his wife Sakie (R), parents of Megumi Yokota abducted to North Korea in 1977, deliver a petition to Eriko Yamatani, minister in charge of the abduction issue, in Tokyo on June 23, 2015, calling for an early return of abduction victims. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japan ruling party calls for tighter sanctions on N. Korea

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (C) receives a list of recommendations from Keiji Furuya (L), head of the Liberal Democratic Party's headquarters for North Korean abductions, at the premier's office in Tokyo on June 25, 2015, alongside Eriko Yamatani, minister in charge of the abduction issue. The LDP demanded that the government tighten sanctions on Pyongyang to prod it to provide information as soon as possible about Japanese nationals abducted by the North decades ago. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japan stages forum on North Korean rights situation in New York

Eriko Yamatani, the Japanese Cabinet minister in charge of the issue of North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals, speaks with reporters in New York on May 5, 2015, after attending an international symposium on Pyongyang's human rights situation. While calling for the return of all Japanese abductees, Yamatani said at the symposium, "North Korea will have no future unless it resolves the abduction issue." (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japan ministers visit Yasukuni a day after Japan-China talks

Sanae Takaichi, minister of internal affairs and communications, arrives at the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on April 23, 2015, to offer prayers. Two other Cabinet ministers, Eriko Yamatani, disaster management minister, and Haruko Arimura, minister in charge of women's empowerment, visited the shrine the same day, the last day of the shrine's three-day annual spring festival. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japan ministers visit Yasukuni a day after Japan-China talks

Sanae Takaichi, minister of internal affairs and communications, speaks to the media after offering prayers at the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on April 23, 2015, the last day of the shrine's three-day annual spring festival. Earlier in the day, two other Cabinet ministers, Eriko Yamatani, disaster management minister, and Haruko Arimura, minister in charge of women's empowerment, visited the shrine. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japan minister Arimura visits controversial Yasukuni Shrine

Haruko Arimura, Japan's minister in charge of women's empowerment, enters the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on April 23, 2015. Eriko Yamatani, head of National Public Safety Commission and minister in charge of disaster management, also visited the shrine, which has been a source of diplomatic friction between Japan and several of its Asian neighbors. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japan minister Arimura visits controversial Yasukuni Shrine

Haruko Arimura, Japan's minister in charge of women's empowerment, visits the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine on April 23, 2015, in Tokyo. Earlier in the day Eriko Yamatani, head of the National Public Safety Commission and minister in charge of disaster management, also visited the shrine. The visits are likely to infuriate Japan's neighbors who suffered Japanese aggression before and during World War II. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japan minister Yamatani visits controversial Yasukuni Shrine

Photo shows Eriko Yamatani, head of the National Public Safety Commission and minister in charge of disaster management, who visited the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on April 23, 2015. Yasukuni has been a source of diplomatic friction as it honors convicted Class-A war criminals, and her move is likely to infuriate China and South Korea. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Public safety chief sees items related to Tokyo subway gas attack

Eriko Yamatani (L), chairwoman of the National Public Safety Commission, visits an exhibit of items related to the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in the Japanese capital on April 4, 2015. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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U.N. forum adopts 7 goals to mitigate disaster risks

Japan's minister for disaster management Eriko Yamatani (R) marks the adoption a framework to mitigate the risks and damage of disasters on March 18, 2015, at the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in the northeastern Japan city of Sendai. At left is Margareta Wahlstroem, the U.N. secretary general's special representative for disaster risk reduction. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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U.N. forum adopts 7 goals to mitigate disaster risks

Sendai Mayor Emiko Okuyama (L), Japan's minister for disaster management Eriko Yamatani (C) and Margareta Wahlstroem, the U.N. secretary general's special representative for disaster risk reduction, attend a press conference on March 19, 2015, in the northeastern Japan city of Sendai, after participants in the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction there agreed on seven global goals to mitigate the risks and damage of disasters. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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U.N. forum adopts 7 goals to mitigate disaster risks

Japan's minister for disaster management Eriko Yamatani (R) and Margareta Wahlstroem, the U.N. secretary general's special representative for disaster risk reduction, congratulate each other on March 19, 2015, as participants in the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in the northeastern Japan city of Sendai agreed on seven global goals to mitigate the risks and damage of disasters. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japan, China agree to keep cooperating over disaster management

Eriko Yamatani (L), Japan's minister for disaster management, and China's Civil Affairs Minister Li Liguo (R) meet for talks in Sendai, northern Japan, on March 15, 2015. They met on the sidelines of the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. (Pool photo by Jiji Press)(Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japan, China agree to keep cooperating over disaster management

Eriko Yamatani (L), Japan's minister for disaster management, and China's Civil Affairs Minister Li Liguo shake hands at the outset of talks in Sendai, northern Japan, on March 15, 2015. They met on the sidelines of the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. (Pool photo by Asahi Shimbun)(Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japan, China agree to keep cooperating over disaster management

Eriko Yamatani (L), Japan's minister for disaster management, and China's Civil Affairs Minister Li Liguo shake hands at the outset of talks in Sendai, northern Japan, on March 15, 2015. They met on the sidelines of the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. (Pool photo by Jiji Press)(Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japanese abductees' kin seeks return of all victims from N. Korea

Shigeo Iizuka (C), leader of a group representing the families of Japanese victims abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, and Tsutomu Nishioka (R), who supports the family group, meet with Eriko Yamatani, minister in charge of the issue, at the Cabinet Office in Tokyo on March 6, 2015. Iizuka asked the government to work toward the return of all abduction victims from North Korea. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Senior gov't official to attend "Takeshima Day" ceremony

Yohei Matsumoto, a Cabinet Office parliamentary secretary shown in this undated photo, will attend a ceremony on Feb. 22, 2015, in the western Japan city of Matsue, commemorating the day islets at the center of a territorial dispute with South Korea were declared Japanese territory more than a century ago, Eriko Yamatani, state minister in charge of territorial affairs, said on Feb. 17. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Japan sees greater terror threat after hostage murder

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga (L), next to Eriko Yamatani, chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission, addresses a vice ministerial meeting at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Feb. 3, 2015, aimed at discussing ways to better protect Japanese citizens from international crimes and terrorism. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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U.N. envoy on N. Korea human rights visits Japan

Marzuki Darusman (R), the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, and Eriko Yamatani, a Japanese minister in charge of the abduction issue, shake hands in Tokyo on Jan. 22, 2015, prior to their talks. Darusman is visiting Japan from Jan. 19 to 23 to discuss the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Drama staged in Tokyo to mark 70th anniv. of A-bombings

Noriko Yamatani (R), actress and playwright of the Bungakuza theater company, plays the role of a supporter for atomic-bombing victims in a drama performed in Tokyo on Oct. 17, 2015, to mark the 70th anniversary of the World War II nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ==Kyodo

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U.S. ready to help Japan resolve N. Korean abduction issue

TOKYO, Japan - Eriko Yamatani (L), minister in charge of the issue of North Korea's past abductions of Japanese nationals, shakes hands with Robert King, U.S. special envoy for human rights issues, in Tokyo on Nov. 10, 2014. King said Washington stands ready to help Tokyo resolve the abduction issue. (Kyodo)

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Ex-head of U.N. panel on DPRK human rights meets abductee kin

TOKYO, Japan - Michael Kirby (R), former chief of a U.N. commission investigating North Korean human rights violations, meets Eriko Yamatani, state minister in charge of the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang agents, at the Cabinet Office in Tokyo on Oct. 21, 2014, shortly before meeting a group of Japanese abductees' relatives. (Kyodo)

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3 female ministers visit Yasukuni

TOKYO, Japan - Eriko Yamatani, chairwoman of the National Public Safety Commission, visits the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Oct. 18, 2014, on the occasion of its autumn festival. Two other female Cabinet ministers also visited there, a move that will likely draw criticism from China and South Korea. (Kyodo)

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Abductees' kin oppose N. Korea trip by Japanese officials

TOKYO, Japan - Teruaki Masumoto (L), secretary general of the Japanese Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, hands a petition to Eriko Yamatani, state minister in charge of the abduction issue, in Tokyo on Oct. 16, 2014, to convey the group's opposition to a proposed trip for Japanese government officials to visit North Korea on a fact-finding mission. (Kyodo)

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Minister in photo with anti-Korean residents' group member

TOKYO, Japan - National Public Safety Commission Chairwoman Eriko Yamatani holds a press conference at the National Police Agency in Tokyo on Sept. 18, 2014. Yamatani admitted that she had a photo taken in 2009 with a former member of a civic group against privileges for Korean residents in Japan without knowing it. (Kyodo)

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Japan abduction minister calls for N. Korea's response

GENEVA, Switzerland - Eriko Yamatani, Japan's state minister in charge of the abduction issue, says in her keynote speech at an international symposium at the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva on Sept. 10, 2014, that North Korea must take serious and concrete steps to solve its past abductions of Japanese nationals while holding a picture of Megumi Yokota, one of the Japanese abductees. (Kyodo)

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Abe reshuffles Cabinet

TOKYO, Japan - Eriko Yamatani, newly appointed as chair of the National Public Safety Commission and minister in charge of the abduction issue, enters the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Sept. 3, 2014. (Kyodo)

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Families push N. Korea for immediate return of all Japanese abductees

Takuya Yokota (C), a brother of Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota, Koichiro Iizuka (R), a son of abductee Yaeko Taguchi, and Eriko Yamatani (3rd from R), a former Japanese minister for the abduction issue, meet with senior officials of a U.S. human rights group in Washington on May 2, 2018. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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Abductee's kin urges U.S. to list N. Korea as terror sponsor

Takuya Yokota (R), secretary general of Japan's Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, and Eriko Yamatani, former minister in charge of the abduction issue, attend a press conference in Washington on Sept. 13, 2017. The two said they requested that the United States relist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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LDP submits proposal for additional N. Korea sanctions to PM Abe

Eriko Yamatani of the Liberal Democratic Party hands a written proposal to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on Sept. 16, 2016, for fresh unilateral sanctions on North Korea, in response to the country's fifth nuclear test a week earlier. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

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(2)4 lawmakers leave DPJ to join new party

TOKYO, Japan - (From L to R) Eriko Yamatani, Takao Sato, Hiroshi Kumagai and Zenjiro KanekoFour, all House of Representatives members planning to form a new party pose for a photograph after submitting letters of resignation to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. (Kyodo)