Between 1977 and 1983, North Korean government agents abducted Japanese citizens from Japan. Although only 17 Japanese citizens are officially recognized by the Japanese government as having been abdu
In May 2004, North Korea allowed the five children of two abducted couples to leave North Korea and join their families, who had come back to Japan a year and a half before.
Junichiro Koizumi and Kim Jong Il
Sakie Yokota, the mother of the abducted girl Megumi Yokota, meets with U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House in April 2006.
![Badge worn in support of returning victims to Japan (often worn as a lapel pin [ja])](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/%E3%83%96%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AA%E3%83%9C%E3%83%B3%E3%83%90%E3%83%83%E3%82%B8.jpg/500px-%E3%83%96%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AA%E3%83%9C%E3%83%B3%E3%83%90%E3%83%83%E3%82%B8.jpg)
Badge worn in support of returning victims to Japan (often worn as a lapel pin [ja])
Hitomi Soga
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Hitomi Soga-Jenkins is a Japanese woman who was abducted to North Korea together with her mother, Miyoshi Soga, from Sado Island, Japan, in 1978. In 1980, she married Charles Robert Jenkins, an Americ
North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens
…on October 15, 2002. The five repatriated victims were Fukie Chimura (née Hamamoto), Yasushi Chimura, Yukiko Hasuike (née Okudo), Kaoru Hasuike, and Hitomi Soga, the wife of Charles Robert Jenkins, who remained in North Korea. However, the Japanese Government, listening to the pleas of the general public and…
Soga in 2023
Hitomi Soga with her mother Miyoshi Soga, early 1960s
Hitomi Soga (front row, third from left) with Shinzō Abe and Donald Trump in Japan, 2017