Japan: After Over One and a Half Years of Illegal Detention in China Yoko Kaneko is Reunited With Her Family

At 6:58 pm on November 27, 2003, Yoko Kaneko arrived at Tokyo Narita international airport by Japan Airline Flight JL782 from Beijing to Tokyo.

Reporters interview Atsushi Kaneko whilst waiting for his wife	Falun Gong practitioners welcome Yoko's return
Yoko and her husband are interviewed

Upon stepping out of the exit in the airport, Yoko shook hands with those welcoming her arrival. Finally reuniting with her husband Atsushi Kaneko said, "I'm very happy! I'm truly relieved upon seeing Yoko."

Reporters from Chinese and Japanese TV stations, radio broadcasting stations, and newspapers stepped up, surrounded Yoko and asked questions. Yoko said, "I am very grateful to the Japanese Government, Japanese Embassy in China, and all people who paid attention to and helped the rescue. I'm grateful to each one of rescue associations and all fellow Falun Dafa practitioners worldwide. I appreciate my family members for their attention and my husband for his endless efforts. All the efforts have helped me to leave the prison and return free and safe to Japan." When asked about her feeling to be back in Japan, she said, "I feel relaxed and safe, and free to have my own belief. The one and a half years' imprisonment made me be truly determined to persist in my belief in Falun Dafa's principles, Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance."

Yoko's friends and fellow practitioners were very pleased to see her returning to the free world. Japan Falun Gong practitioners said, "We are very happy to see Yoko's release and return to Japan. During her one and a half years' imprisonment, Yoko was brutally tortured in a labour camp in China. Numerous Falun Gong practitioners are brutally tortured in China. Thus we appeal to the Japanese Government, media, and all people of justice and conscience to help our rescue efforts. Today Yoko finally returned. Many Japanese people called us and said that they learned from TV news about the release of Yoko and that they were pleased. We hope more governments, media and kind-hearted people will pay attention to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China and to stand with us to call on the Chinese regime to immediately release all Falun Gong practitioners, to let all Falun Gong practitioners practice, study, live and work freely in China and to let them have happy families."

Yoko was arrested in Beijing on May 24, 2002 for distributing flyers to passers-by in Beijing to call for an end to the persecution. She was sentenced to one and a half years in a forced labour camp. During her imprisonment, her husband, friends, and fellow Falun Gong practitioners strove to rescue her all the time. Many governments, human rights organizations, and individuals worldwide wrote to the Japanese Government to call for her rescue or wrote to China directly to demand her immediate release. By November, the rescue campaign had obtained over 130,000 signatures from people worldwide and support from 270 members of congress and city councils.