Japan’s missing hikers spotlight lacklustre efforts at locating foreigners
- Missing foreign travellers across Japan have raised questions about the seriousness of the authorities in resolving such disappearances
- Officials have not responded to a UN committee’s request for phone data or cross-border collaboration in the case of a missing French woman
The family’s renewed call for information follows the authorities’ seemingly cavalier attitude towards locating the missing woman, highlighting the issue of sporadic missing foreign travellers in Japan and raising questions about the seriousness of officials to resolve such disappearances.
Tiphaine Veron was 36 when she went missing on July 29, 2018, in the popular mountain town of Nikko, north of Tokyo. She had checked into her hotel in the town, left her luggage and passport in her room, and then vanished.
The Veron family is convinced that her disappearance was not an accident. In a book published last year titled Tiphaine where are you? , the family detailed issues they had experienced in their dealings with Japanese police and the country’s judicial system.
In response to an appeal from the family, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances formally requested in April that Japanese authorities improve cooperation with their French counterparts, after France had - in September 2018 - opened a kidnapping investigation into the case. A government official said in mid-July that Japan had “properly responded” to the UN panel’s request.
The UN committee said that French authorities had asked Japanese police to collect and preserve mobile phone data in 2018 and again in 2021, but “received no response”.
Japanese police marked the five-year anniversary of Veron’s disappearance by handing out fliers at Nikko station seeking information.
