The father of a Japanese student freed yesterday, eight months after being snatched by bandits in Iran, expressed relief and apologized for causing trouble, as Japan thanked Iranian authorities.
Iranian officials on Saturday announced the release of Satoshi Nakamura, a 23-year-old tourist, who was seized in October in the southeast.
They did not say when and where he was freed, but Japanese press reports said he was found across the border in Pakistan.
The hostage’s father, Kiyotaka Nakamura, said he received a call from his son at 11:30pm on Saturday and spoke to him for three or four minutes.
“When I see him, I want to tell him, ‘You really hung in there,’” Nakamura, wearing a business suit, told reporters in the family’s hometown of Osaka in western Japan.
He said that his son’s voice sounded cheerful.
“I asked him, ‘Are you alright?’ He replied, ‘I’m alright both physically and mentally,’” Nakamura said.
“I felt relieved because what I heard was Satoshi’s voice just like I remembered it,” he said.
APOLOGY
“Please allow me to apologize for causing all the trouble and worries to you,” he said, referring to the public.
It is common in Japan to apologize for upsetting the social order.
Nakamura, a student at Yokohama National University, was abducted on Oct. 8 in a region bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan as he headed from his hotel for the ancient mud-built citadel of Bam in Kerman Province.
He had been traveling alone after teaching Japanese and English in Nepal with a volunteer group.
A SON FOR A SON
A bandit called Esmail Shahbakhsh, blamed for the kidnapping, had reportedly demanded the release of his arrested son in exchange for Nakamura, Iranian officials said.
Japan’s Kyodo News reported that Nakamura was freed on Saturday in Pakistan and was to be moved to Tehran yesterday under the custody of Iranian authorities.
In a report from Tehran, Kyodo said Nakamura had recently been kept at a local government facility in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the