Photo/Illutration An Afghan family arrives at Narita Airport on Sept. 12 after fleeing the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. (Hikaru Uchida)

An Afghan family of four that escaped the Taliban's takeover on their own before Tokyo attempted to evacuate them arrived at Narita Airport on the evening of Sept. 12 on a commercial flight.

The Foreign Ministry that day announced the arrival of the four whom Tokyo initially planned to airlift out of Afghanistan. They include staff at the Kabul office of the government-affiliated Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and two children. 

“If they wish to stay in Japan, we will do our utmost to respond to their request,” a ministry official said.

The family landed at the airport close to Tokyo at around 8:10 p.m. They had flown from Pakistan, where they had evacuated to, and then on to Japan via Qatar.

Another family of six, including an Afghan staff member at the JICA office, is expected to arrive in Japan on Sept. 13.

All 10 Afghans had stayed in Islamabad, Pakistan, where they had escaped to on foot before the Japanese government dispatched Self-Defense Forces aircraft for an evacuation operation in late August, the ministry said.

The government was making arrangements for them to travel to Japan, including issuing short-term visas, according to the ministry.

The government in late August deployed SDF aircraft to Kabul to evacuate Japanese nationals as well as 500 or so Afghans and their family members who worked for the Japanese Embassy and JICA out of Afghanistan.

But Japan pulled the plug on the mission after a suicide bomber with ISIS-K, the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group, detonated explosives near the Kabul airport.

The mission ended up only evacuating one Japanese national and none of the Afghan staff and their families who had worked for Japan.

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