Yokota family
The Yokota family, husband Shigeru and wife Sakie along with their twin sons Takuya and Tetsuya founded the Japanese National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea in 1997. The Association supports the victims of North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Yokotas' daughter Megumi was kidnapped in 1977 by North Korean spies; her current whereabouts are unknown.
Sakie Yokota once met with U.S. President George W. Bush to talk about demanding sanctions on North Korea and in 2013 she testified about her daughter's abduction.
In 2014, the Yokotas met Megumi's Korean daughter.
On September 19, 2017, President of the United States Donald Trump, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, included Yokota in a series of accusations against the North Korean government, saying, "We know it kidnapped a sweet 13-year-old Japanese girl from a beach in her own country to enslave her as a language tutor for North Korea's spies."
On April 2018 Shigeru Yokota was Hospital in Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture causing poor health.
On June 5, 2020, Shigeru Yokota died at age 87. He had been hospitalized in Kawasaki for more than two years.
After Nobuko Masumoto died of Cancer in December 12,2017 Kagoshima.
