The government said Tuesday it will reorganize the task force looking into North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals by limiting its standing members to four, instead of all 18 Cabinet members, to ensure greater flexibility.
"We have decided to set up a task force in a new arrangement to flexibly advance comprehensive measures concerning the abduction issues," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano told a news conference.
The decision was made because progress on the issue has been elusive. Other than the five abductees the North handed over in 2002, no other Japanese believed spirited away by Pyongyang's agents has come home and the hermit state has failed to reinvestigate the fate of those Japan still lists as missing.