Family not giving up on missing Yamada sisters

As one year passed with still no news and concrete lead on what happened to Japanese sisters Natsuki and Chinatsu Yamada, their family is now offering an additional reward to those who can give information.

In an interview with parents Hideki and Kozue Yamada and Chinatsu’s fiancé Kenichi Ichikawa at the Japanese Consulate yesterday, they said they will be giving a $5,000 reward to those who can give information on what happened to the Yamada sisters.

The parents of missing Japanese sisters Natsuki and Chinatsu Yamada, Hideki and Kozue, along with Chinatsu’s fiancé Kenichi Ichikawa continue to look for their loved ones a year after they went missing during a vacation on Saipan. (Frauleine S. Villanueva)

This amount supplements the $1,000 reward offered by NMI CrimeStoppers.

The Yamada couple said they continue to communicate with the Department of Public Safety and declined to give updates on the case, but they are appealing to the community to help them find their missing daughters.

“We are asking for the community one more time if they have any information whatsoever regarding our missing daughters, anything that can help us solve this incident,” Hideki Yamada said through interpreter Hiroko Tenorio.

Still hoping

The mother, Kozue, said that they continue to hope for their daughters.

“Every single day we are praying for our daughters to be found and every time we come to Saipan, we hope we could see them or we could find something to lead on this incident,” she said.

The parents last saw Chinatsu on January of last year as she has been living by herself in Hokkaido. Natsuki lived with the Yamada couple in Nagano. Their last goodbye was when they brought her to the airport to go to Hokkaido to visit Chinatsu, days before the sisters went to Saipan.

This is the ninth time that the Yamada couple and Ichikawa came to the island for the sisters’ case.

They also always visit Wing Beach where the car the sisters rented was seen the day they went missing on June 30, 2014. Natsuki was then 33, and Chinatsu, 26.

The sisters came to Saipan last year to belatedly celebrate the birthday of the younger Yamada.

This year, the family along with fiancé Ichikawa celebrated Chinatsu’s birthday by joining a marathon like she used to do.

Banners on Liberation Day

According to the family, the Japanese Society on Saipan will be putting up banners and giving away flyers with photos of the sisters as part of their activity during the Liberation Day festivities.

This way, they can create more public awareness and someone might finally give information.

“Even if this is going to be a worst case scenario, we still want to know what happened to our daughters. We raised them, they’re part of our lives and that’s our mission to find out,” the Yamada sisters’ father said.

“We need to know what happened, otherwise, if there is no solution, I feel like there will be no meaning in the life that we are living,” he added.