Mother of missing abductee Ichikawa dies at 91

Sunday 16th November, 06:30 AM JST

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8 Comments

smithinjapan at 03:32 PM JST - 16th November

Very sad. I can't imagine what this poor woman must have going through. While I don't believe that NKorea is necessarily telling the truth, the J-government insisting the poor woman's son was still alive and demanding NK give him back must have provided the woman with a lot of false hope for her remaining years.
thundercat at 03:44 PM JST - 16th November

She could have lived another 100 years and never seen the end of this debacle. Negotiating with NK will never work. Japan should play hardball. Don't waver on the sanctions and cancel all talks. Make NK come to the table with something. It's tough on the families of the potential kidnapping victims but they are never going to get answers by allowing NK to dictate the terms.
PepinGalarga at 01:08 AM JST - 17th November

i dont think this is that newsworthy.

do we have to hear every time something happens to a mother/father/brother/son/daughter of an abductee??

The fact that Japan hasnt even been able to account for how many there are is the proof of the failure in their policies to get them back.

with all the toys and gadgets in Japan, they still havent been able to find out where all these people are and what happened to them.

putting the abduction issue ahead of national security decisions is a major policy mistake for J-gov.
rajakumar at 01:42 AM JST - 17th November

North koreans must live, so does japan, both need to live. Live and let live policy is best policy. Abduction policy issues is blocking this best policy of live and let live.

Forgive and forget, both japan and north korea will be able to move forward. Toyota japan cars moves forward everywhere but the aduction policy issues of of the 1970s, is not helping japan move forward and move on like other regions elsewhere.
Freespeech at 05:52 AM JST - 17th November

PepinGalarga and rajakunar, I fully support your views.

And to make the entire issue worse, it is clear that the J-government and its puppet journalists of NHK have been playing some cruel game with the emotions of this poor woman (and probably many others), just for what they think is a political advantage.

But sooner or later the $$$$ is going to hit the fan and the political cost will be high. In western democracies, it would be devastating and would amount to something like an "abductee-gate" ; in the empire of non-thinking it might be sustainable... who knows ?
soldave at 12:31 PM JST - 17th November

Failing to see how relatives of people who were abducted dying is national news. Although NHK are meeting the government's demands to keep pushing this issue onto the Japanese public, so not a huge surprise.
Schoolboyerror at 08:27 PM JST - 17th November

Do the Japanese government actually want this issue resolved? I always assumed it was a convenient tool to whip up hatred among the right wingers, frustrated that Japan is a diplomatic eunuch.
flammenwerfer at 08:12 AM JST - 18th November

Sad that she never found her son, but there are plenty of greater tragedies occurring daily which we never hear about, unlike the abductees drama which is stagnant water that just won't flow under the bridge.