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.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese