Photo/Illutration Shigeo Iizuka holds a photo of his younger sister, Yaeko Taguchi, during a 2014 event concerning the abduction issue. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Shigeo Iizuka, who until a week ago headed a group of family members waging a decades-long campaign for the return of loved ones abducted by North Korea, died on Dec. 18. He was 83.

Iizuka joined the group after a landmark meeting in Pyongyang in 2002 between then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in which the reclusive regime admitted to having seized Yaeko Taguchi, Iizuka’s younger sister.

“I offer my deepest apology for the extreme regret of not being able to bring back Yaeko Taguchi to Japan for a reunion while he was still alive,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno in a statement released Dec. 18. Matsuno concurrently serves as state minister in charge of the abduction issue.

Iizuka stepped down as head of the family group on Dec. 11, citing ill health. He was replaced by Takuya Yokota, 53, a twin younger brother of Megumi Yokota, a symbolic figure of the abduction issue.

Iizuka had repeatedly expressed frustration in recent months at the lack of progress in resolving the abduction issue and his own failing health.

“Since we began our activities, there has been an uncountable number of changes in prime ministers and state ministers in charge of the abduction issue, yet, to my eternal regret, almost no progress has been made in resolving the matter,” Iizuka said in a meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in October.

At a subsequent news conference, Iizuka acknowledged there was nothing he could do about his failing health. However, at a gathering of the group in November, Iizuka vowed to never give up.

Taguchi vanished in 1978 when she was 22, leaving behind two young children. Iizuka adopted Taguchi’s son, Koichiro, who was just 16 months old at the time. He is now 44 and serves as secretary-general of the family group.

Koichiro issued a statement Dec. 18 that said Iizuka must have felt bitterly disappointed at never being reunited with his younger sister.

In 1991, Japanese police announced it was highly likely that Taguchi, using the Korean name of Lee Un Hae, taught the Japanese language to Kim Hyon Hui, the North Korean spy held responsible for the bombing of a Korean Air passenger jet in 1987.

But in the 2002 meeting between Koizumi and Kim Jong Il, North Korean officials said Taguchi had died in an automobile accident in 1986. But Iizuka found inconsistencies in the explanation given by Pyongyang and continued to work for her return.

Iizuka took over as head of the abductees’ family group in 2007 from Shigeru Yokota, Megumi’s father. Shigeru died in 2020 at 87.

Iizuka spoke about the abduction issue not only in forums across Japan, but also overseas, including at the United Nations.

In 2009, Iizuka and his adopted son met Kim Hyon Hui in South Korea.

The Japanese government suspects that as many as 17 of its nationals were spirited to North Korea in the 1970s and ’80s to teach Japanese language, customs and culture to North Korean spies.

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