Father dies without reuniting with son abducted by N. Korea
The 99-year-old father of a Japanese man who was abducted by North Korea in 1978 died from a stroke at a care facility in Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture, on Monday, without being reunited with his son.
Taira Ichikawa was the oldest of members of government-confirmed abduction victims' families, according to a group supporting such families.
His son, Shuichi, was kidnapped to North Korea at age 23, together with his girlfriend, Rumiko Masumoto, then 24, from a beach in the southwestern Japan prefecture on Aug. 12, 1978.