By KOSUKE SO/ Correspondent
July 21, 2023 at 13:26 JST
A U.N. committee has urged Japan to cooperate with French authorities investigating the disappearance of a tourist in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture.
The Committee on Enforced Disappearances called for urgent action to find French citizen Tiphaine Veron, who went missing in July 2018. She was last seen leaving her hotel.
This is the first request filed to Japan relating to a disappearance, the committee said. It was made under the U.N. Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearance.
The request obliges Japan to update the committee about what is being done to address the case.
Veron was 36 when she disappeared. French authorities believe she was kidnapped.
However, Tochigi prefectural police have not decided whether a crime was committed or if Veron met with an accident.
Japanese police didn’t respond to requests in October 2018 and April 2021 from their French counterparts.
The French side urged Japanese police to find Veron and safeguard her. It also urged them to analyze data on her mobile phone, the committee said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on July 19 that the government is responding to the committee’s request.
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French citizen Tiphaine Veron was last seen leaving her hotel in Nikko in 2018. (Provided by Tochigi prefectural police)
