Japanese official lauds Iran's efforts to release Nakamura

Tokyo, June 16, (IRNA) - Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura on Monday appreciated Iran's serious efforts to help release the abducted Japanese student.
Satoshi Nakamura, a 23-year-old Japanese student was abducted by
bandits on October 8, 2007, in an Iranian southeastern region
bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan as he headed from his hotel for the ancient mud-brick citadel of Bam in Kerman province.
Tokyo sent Senior Vice Foreign Minister Itsunori Onodera to Tehran to pick up Nakamura on Sunday, a Foreign Ministry statement said, adding that they would return to Osaka on Monday.
"The Japanese government would like to express its profound gratitude to Iranian officials for having made all-out efforts to secure Mr. Nakamura's safe release," Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said in a statement.
"The Japanese government takes this opportunity to resolutely denounce the contemptible crime of kidnapping," he added.
Meanwhile, Nakamura arrived in Tehran on Sunday. He was received by a group of Japanese Embassy staff at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport.
Information Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeie had declared on Saturday that the Japanese student and an Iranian cleric were freed
from the armed bandits.