The government began consulting Monday with Liberal Democratic Party members on how Japan can take in and support the five known surviving Japanese abducted by North Korea and their immediate families still in the North, government officials said.
Participants in the talks at the Diet building discussed what laws can be applied to support the abductees and possibly introduce new bills to facilitate the assistance, the officials said.
Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe told senior LDP members, including Jinen Nagase, deputy chief of the LDP Policy Affairs Research Council, about the government's plans on assisting the five abductees and their families. Abe is also an LDP lawmaker.