TOKYO, July 5 (UPI) -- Plans are finalized for former kidnap victim Hitomi Soga to meet her American husband and two daughters in Jakarta on Friday, Japan's government said Monday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda announced the details of the reunion, 21 months after Soga returned to Japan from North Korea in 2002.
The arrangement, which involved the governments of Japan, North Korea and Indonesia, is welcome news to Soga, who was hoping to see her family before her second daughter's birthday on July 23.
Analysts suspect that the Koizumi Cabinet pushed forward the date of the reunion to help the ruling coalition gain the upper hand in Upper House elections on July 11.
Japanese officials will visit Pyongyang to escort Soga's husband, Charles Jenkins, and the couple's two daughters to Jakarta, where Soga will meet them. The reunion is likely to take place at a hotel near the Japanese Embassy, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Monday.
