(Tuesday, July 30, 2002)

TOKYO — Twenty-one lawmakers formed a group Monday to seek the release of the Chinese wife of a Japanese businessman who was sentenced by China to labour re-education due to activities related to Falun Gong, [..] outlawed in China, the lawmakers said. The group handed Senior Vice Foreign Minister Seiken Sugiura a letter calling on the government to ask China to free Luo Rong, 37, whose Japanese name is Yoko Kaneko.

Chinese authorities detained Luo, a resident of Niigata Prefecture, and two Japanese women May 24 when they were handing out Falun Gong-related handbills in Beijing, according to the lawmakers. The two Japanese were released shortly but Luo was sentenced to one and a half years labor re-education in late June, they said.