Hitomi Soga, who returned to Japan last year for the first time since being abducted by North Korean agents in 1978, has revealed her loneliness in a letter sent to Kyodo News.

The 3 1/2-page note was written in pencil by the 44-year-old Soga, and details her sorrow at being separated from her family.

"This is my second autumn in Japan, but I don't like this year's autumn. It's too lonely and I don't want to stay alone any more," she wrote.

"This past year has been a continuation of very sad, lonely and depressing days," Soga wrote, adding that she has cried time after time when thinking of the family she was forced to leave in North Korea.

Soga is one of five Japanese who returned home in October 2002 for the first time since being abducted nearly a quarter of a century earlier.

At a summit between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Sept. 17, 2002, North Korea admitted that it had kidnapped more than a dozen Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s, saying only five of them were still alive.

Soga's American husband and their two North Korean-born children remain in Pyongyang, while North Korea has ignored Japanese demands that the relatives of the former abductees be allowed to travel to Japan.

"The happiest time for me was when I saw the three of them smile," she wrote, revealing that she has bought presents for her daughters although she knew she would not be able to hand them the presents on their birthdays.

Her note concluded that she wants to celebrate their birthdays all at once once they are reunited. "Until then, I want them to take care. To the family I deeply love," the note read.