(Update 2) Father of Japanese Abductee Keiko Arimoto Dies at 96

   Tokyo, Feb. 17 (Jiji Press)--Akihiro Arimoto, father of Keiko Arimoto, a Japanese woman who was abducted to North Korea in the 1980s, died of old age this month, people familiar with the matter said Monday. He was 96.
   Keiko went missing in Europe in 1983 at the age of 23 while studying in London after sending a letter to her family from Copenhagen.
   She was found to be in North Korea in 1988, when Toru Ishioka, a Japanese man who went missing in Europe that year, said in a letter addressed to his family that he and others, including Keiko, were together in Pyongyang.
   In 2002, the Japanese government recognized her as an abductee to North Korea. Kimihiro Uomoto, a member of a group of Japanese left-wing extremists who hijacked a Japan Airlines flight in 1970, has been internationally wanted for his alleged role in her abduction.
   Akihiro had appealed for an early rescue of all Japanese abductees to North Korea and pressed for tougher sanctions on Pyongyang while running a steel works. He had served as vice head of a group of abductees' families. His wife, Kayoko, died in February 2020 at the age of 94.

(2025/02/17-11:58)

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