The 27-year-old daughter of one of the Japanese men who hijacked a Japan Airlines airplane and defected to North Korea in 1970 arrived in Osaka on Tuesday, a supporter who promoted her return said.
Rei Shibata arrived at Kansai International Airport in the evening, said the Japanese supporter, who traveled to Pyongyang last week after obtaining a special permit for Shibata to travel to Japan. Shibata was born in North Korea and does not have a Japanese passport.
She is the daughter of one of the nine men who hijacked the plane and Megumi Yao, who has confessed in a Japanese court to her involvement in the 1983 abduction of Keiko Arimoto to North Korea from Europe.
Shibata's father was arrested in 1988 in Japan and finished serving time in 1994.