OSAKA -- Fusako Aoyama, one of 15 Japanese women visiting from North Korea, told reporters here Wednesday that she is glad to be reunited with relatives and friends in Japan but prefers to live in her adopted home.

Aoyama and the 14 other women have lived in the socialist state for nearly 40 years with their North Korean husbands. Aoyama, 59, who was raised in Komatsujima, Tokushima Prefecture, and used to live in Osaka, also expressed appreciation for those who arranged her visit to Japan -- her first since leaving for North Korea in 1960.

During her stay, she has met with her two brothers and other relatives, teachers and friends with whom she had been close as a child. "Osaka has become a different city," she said in Japanese. "When I lived here in 1958, the streets were all mixed up. Now there are really large buildings. I couldn't recognize my old home."

Aoyama, who works as a municipal official in North Korea, said she hopes to visit Japan again, but prefers to live in North Korea, where her children and grandchildren reside. "After living in North Korea for 37 years, I can relax there," she said. "But I hope the two nations (North Korea and Japan) will normalize diplomatic relations as soon as possible so I can visit Japan frequently."

Asked about a shortage of food in North Korea, Aoyama said natural disasters in recent years have damaged the nation's harvests. She called for more support from Japan.

One of Aoyama's younger brothers, Tsutomu, said he had been concerned about his sister for over 30 years, but his worries evaporated when he met her. He said he couldn't stop crying when they were reunited on Monday.