In 2014, the Yokotas met Megumi's Korean daughter.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Also in 2014, Sakie Yokota met U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss the case of her daughter and other abductees. The meeting came after a press conference Obama held with then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. During the meeting, Obama said he was "moved by their tragic experiences."[1]
On September 19, 2017, President of the United States Donald Trump, in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, included Yokota in a series of accusations against the North Korean government, saying, "We know it kidnapped a sweet 13-year-old Japanese girl from a beach in her own country to enslave her as a language tutor for North Korea's spies."[11]
On June 5, 2020, Shigeru Yokota died at age 87. He had been hospitalized in Kawasaki for more than two years. [12][13] On October 24, 2020, former Prime Minister Abe and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga attended a memorial service for Shigeru, where Suga praised him and said he would "take the lead in making a breakthrough (on the abductees issue), without missing any opportunity."[14][15]
Sakie Yokota wrote a book, North Korea Kidnapped My Daughter, about the issue.[16]