Kidnapped Japanese tourist freed in Iran after 8 months

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Japan thanked Iranian officials Sunday for their efforts to secure the release of a Japanese student who was kidnapped in the Middle Eastern country's lawless border area last year. Satoshi Nakamura, 23, was released late Saturday, eight months after he was abducted while traveling alone on Iran's southeastern border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. "We express our profound gratitude to Iranian officials who provided all-out effort for his release," Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said in a statement. In his hometown Toyonaka in western Japan, his father, Kiyotaka Nakamura, told a televised news conference his son called late Saturday. "I was so relieved that my son sounded the way he was before," Nakamura's father said. "I apologize he has caused so much trouble, and thank you for all your support."