With the sole surviving parent of North Korea’s Japanese abductees turning 90 this year, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is facing domestic pressure to act. She wants direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to break through the current stalemate and to broker the return of Japanese nationals who were spirited away decades ago.
Megumi Yokota was abducted in 1977 on her way home from school on Japan’s west coast. Her mother Sakie, who turned 90 in February, still hopes of being reunited with her daughter, a desire shared by aging family members of other unreturned abductees.
Also spurred by personal conviction on the issue, Takaichi could break ground if she manages to make deft diplomatic moves with Washington as well as Pyongyang. A breakthrough would demonstrate the kind of whole-of-government capability that she is seeking to build through her security reforms.
For Canberra, how Japan handles this issue will reveal its capacity for statecraft – how well it can coordinate its diplomatic and intelligence levers – in the context of closer Australia-Japan relations.
From the 1970s to the 1980s, at least 17 Japanese were abducted by North Korea, some through North Korean agents and others by ethnic Koreans living in Japan who had been encouraged or coerced. In 2002, Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s prime minister at the time, visited North Korea, leading to Pyongyang’s acknowledgement of 13 of the 17 cases and the return of five abductees.
Koizumi’s achievement came from years of diplomatic effort, police work and intelligence gathering. It reflected Tokyo’s greater willingness to stand up to Pyongyang’s coercion, which was demonstrated in 2001 when the Japan Coast Guard exchanged fire with a North Korean spy ship near the Japanese island of Amami Oshima. The ship eventually sank in China’s exclusive economic zone – because the crew had scuttled it, Tokyo said. After the Japanese government persuaded China to allow a salvage operation, intelligence gathered from the ship exposed North Korea’s espionage against Japan to the world. This strengthened Koizumi’s hand when he met Kim Jong-il.
Since then, there has been little obvious progress. Tokyo has taken some steps to pressure Pyongyang and safeguard Japan, including banning the Mangyongbong-92 ferry service from North Korea in 2006 and placing suspected North Korean agents on the Interpol wanted list between 2002 and 2007. The National Police Agency of Japan (NPA) and prefectural police departments continue to investigate the abduction cases but are yet to publicise information that could support a diplomatic breakthrough for the 12 abductees whose fate remains unknown.
The full scale of the abduction issue is still unclear. As of May 2026, Japan’s NPA had declared 869 missing persons suspected to have been abducted by North Korea, but Pyongyang claims that the 2002 summit resolved the issue. Of the 12 outstanding cases for which Japan is confident of North Korean involvement, Pyongyang says eight died and the other four didn’t enter the country. Tokyo has grounds to distrust this information. For instance, DNA testing by Japan’s forensic experts on the remains handed to Japan in 2004 revealed that they were not Megumi Yokota’s, contrary to Pyongyang’s claim.
Now, there is some prospect of progress. Takaichi has a mandate for bold action as public concern grows for the aging family members who may soon pass away without knowing the fate of their abducted loved ones. She also seems to have President Donald Trump’s approval, having reportedly sought his advice on her intended meeting with Kim. Following their two summits last October and this past March, both leaders called for an immediate resolution to the issue.
These are important steps in lining up a Takaichi–Kim summit. Although Pyongyang is downplaying the likelihood of it happening, it may consider such a meeting to be a big enough prize worth making concessions over the abductions for.
Takaichi is balancing this allure of a summit with a firm stance towards North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. This includes ongoing maritime operations with Australia and others to enforce UN sanctions through surveillance of its illicit ship-to-ship transfers.
For Australia and the international community, the abduction issue is an important reminder that authoritarian regimes have few qualms about using hybrid tactics to target civilians in open democratic societies. Australia recognised this by making the abduction issue, along with North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, a key discussion topic at the Japan–Australia summit in May.
Australia has a direct stake in Japan’s capacity to handle this issue, because it is supporting Japan’s intelligence and security reforms. Moreover, it can help Japan break the deadlock by providing knowledge and expertise. For example, its ambassador-designate to Japan, Andrew Shearer, could leverage his experience as Australia’s top intelligence official to offer Japan ideas on how investigative and intelligence agencies can work together effectively and closely. Although the systems in the two countries are currently different, the Takaichi government is in the process of implementing intelligence reforms modelled on Australia and other developed nations.
In supporting the abduction issue, Australia should take note of Japan’s cooperation with South Korea, an indispensable partner in reaching a resolution. As part of their bilateral shuttle diplomacy, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung visited Takaichi’s hometown, Nara, in January, and Takaichi visited Lee’s hometown, Andong, in May. The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment each time to resolving the issue, as well as to achieving the complete denuclearisation of North Korea.
Over the years, Sakie Yokota, the mother of abductee Megumi, has written to 13 Japanese prime ministers, continuing this effort with Takaichi, calling for a resolution. As Takaichi’s visit to Canberra this year underscored, the abductions should be a matter of concern to Australians, not only as a pain suffered by a close partner country but as a hostile tactic that needs to be met with a strong united front.