Deserter Granted Residency in Japan

Niigata, Japan - Charles Jenkins, the American husband of a repatriated Japanese abductee to North Korea, was granted permanent residency status in Japan on Tuesday. Jenkins, a former US Army sergeant who fled to North Korea, married Hitomi Soga there and lived in the country for almost 40 years, came to Japan with the couple's two North Korean-born daughters in July 2004. He visited the Niigata Branch Office of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau on Tuesday to obtain the status. The Justice Ministry decided to grant it to him on Friday only half a month after Jenkins applied for the status. Usually, foreign nationals need about six months to obtain permanent residency status. Jenkins, 68, has been living in his wife's hometown on Sado Island in the Sea of Japan since completing a 30-day detention for desertion at a US Army... [read full story]