Kaoru Hasuike wants to return to Chuo University, where he was a student when he was abducted to North Korea in 1978.
People close to Hasuike said Saturday the 46-year-old sent a letter requesting readmission to the university through a group of people at the school who want to help Japanese abducted by North Korea.
The school is likely to readmit Hasuike, they said.
In the letter, sent Friday, Hasuike wrote that he wishes to return to the school and show his children how he is working hard to readjust to Japanese society, they said.
"As a parent of my children I have made a decision to request that you readmit me," he was quoted as writing in the letter.
In 1998, the university responded to a request from Hasuike's family regarding his readmission by saying that it would allow him to return to the school.
Hasuike was in his third year in the university's law school when he was abducted to North Korea from his hometown of Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, in July 1978.
He was abducted together with his girlfriend, Yukiko Okudo, who married him in 1980 while they were in North Korea.
