LEAD: Japan recognizes Tanaka as N. Korea kidnap victim

Japan Policy & Politics, May 2, 2005

TOKYO, April 27 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH DETAILS)

Minoru Tanaka, who went missing in 1978, was put on a list of Japanese citizens Tokyo officially recognizes as having been abducted by North Korea, government officials said Wednesday.

Japan will notify Pyongyang of the decision through the Japanese Embassy in Beijing as early as Thursday, they said.

Tanaka is the 16th person to be put on the list. Five of the 16 were repatriated to Japan in 2002.

The decision was made Wednesday at a meeting of relevant government officials and endorsed by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi later in the day.

Tanaka, a noodle shop employee from Kobe in western Japan, disappeared at the age of 28.

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiken Sugiura, who chaired the meeting, said in a news conference after the meeting, ''We have confirmed from several testimonies that Mr. Tanaka was deceived by someone into going to North Korea under the order of the North Korean authorities.''

The recognition of Tanaka as a kidnap victim is based on the abduction victim support law. Under the law, he will be eligible for government support and the government will be able to officially take up his case in negotiations with North Korea on the issue of abductions by Pyongyang.

In October 2002, the government urged North Korea to clarify the whereabouts of Tanaka and two other Japanese nationals, saying there is a strong possibility that they were abducted by North Korea. But Pyongyang said it could not confirm whether the three Japanese had entered North Korea.