Junichiro Koizumi

Koizumi may bring back the relatives on the government plane on which he will be traveling, government sources said privately. Seven of the eight are offspring of the five abductees while the eighth is the American husband of one of the five.

Hosoda did not elaborate on details of Koizumi's plan to bring the relatives to Japan.

He did say, however, that the prime minister's visit was aimed at making headway on bilateral normalization talks, which have been stalled since October 2002.

The Japan Times Weekly: May 22, 2004
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