Japan seeks to resolve bilateral tensions with North Korea

Tokyo will raise the issue of the abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korea and step up pressure on Pyongyang to repatriate them, according to Japanese Prime Minister Minoru Kihara, the chief of staff, as quoted by the United Press International news agency.

,,We will take every diplomatic opportunity to raise the issue of the abductions”, Kihara said.

He stressed that the issue should be raised both in Japan and abroad. He asked North Korea to understand that Tokyo is committed to the rapid repatriation of all abducted Japanese citizens.

Although the Pyongyang government has repeatedly ignored Japan’s requests, it admitted in 2002 that it had indeed abducted 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies in the Japanese language. Five of them and their families later returned to their homeland, and the North Koreans said the others had since died. Japanese authorities estimate the number of abducted citizens at 17 and are continuing to investigate what may have happened to those who remained in North Korea.

In November 2025, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced her willingness to meet face to face with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to discuss relations between the two states and to build new, consistent relations between them, without ruling out making progress on the issue of the ,,abduction of Japanese citizens’’, an initiative that has not yet yielded the results expected by Tokyo.