Police have resumed their investigation into the disappearance of a man in Niigata Prefecture 26 years ago, after the family of a girl believed to have been abducted by North Korean agents said that he too may have been abducted, police sources said Thursday.
Investigators have reopened the case on Takashi Osawa, who was reported missing after visiting a friend on Sado Island, in Niigata Prefecture, in 1974.
They will question his family and fellow workers at the time and decide whether Osawa, then 24, should be included among a group of Japanese nationals allegedly abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.
The reopening of the investigation comes after the friends and family of Megumi Yokota, who went missing in Niigata in 1977 at the age of 13, indicated it was possible that Osawa could also have been abducted, they said.
They pointed out that the investigation into Osawa's disappearance was conducted before the earliest of the alleged attempts by North Korean agents to abduct Japanese nationals came to light, and thus may have been overlooked as a possible abduction case.
According to the National Police Agency, police have been investigating the disappearances of 10 people, not including Osawa, in seven separate cases in which North Korean agents might have been involved.
Japanese and North Korean Red Cross officials issued a joint statement on Monday saying North Korea has informed Japanese officials that it has started investigating the whereabouts of the missing Japanese.
The issue has been a major stumbling block in negotiations on establishing diplomatic ties between the two countries.