Tokyo

A geneticist has landed a plum job at the Tokyo police department, just weeks after his work rekindled a row over the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.

DNA testing has been used to identify victims abducted by North Korea. Credit: Y. SHIMBUN/NEWSCOM

But critics are claiming that the transfer of Tomio Yoshii from Teikyo University to head the forensics unit at the Tokyo metropolitan police department is intended to shield him from enquiries about the accuracy of his DNA tests. In a fractious parliamentary exchange with foreign minister Nobutaka Machimura on 30 March, Nobuhiko Suto, a member of the opposition Democrat Party of Japan, suggested that the government had used its influence to plant Yoshii in his new position.

The Japanese government has claimed that Yoshii's DNA analysis proves beyond doubt that cremated remains provided by the North Korean government late last year were from someone other than Megumi Yokota — a Japanese woman kidnapped by North Korea in 1977. Japan has been demanding a full account of the fate of Yokota and several others who were allegedly kidnapped.

But in an interview with Nature, Yoshii has conceded that his results could have been the result of contamination (see Nature 433, 445; 2005 ). Japanese government officials have disputed the Nature article, claiming that Yoshii says he was misquoted. A documentary film-maker from Australia, a South Korean broadcasting company and other reporters have since sought, without success, to interview Yoshii.

Suto says he wants Yoshii to testify on the matter before parliament's foreign affairs committee. But in Yoshii's new position with the police force, he can only appear if his employer agrees — an arrangement that Suto says is being used as an obstacle. During the 30 March debate, Suto told Machimura that it was “surprising” that “a civilian without real police training” should suddenly obtain a top position in the police department. “Isn't this just hiding a witness?” Suto asked.

Yoshii's results were taken as conclusive by the government despite contrary reports from the National Research Institute of Police Science in Chiba, which found that no DNA could be gleaned from the remains. “If we are going to take the word of a single academic at a private university over that of this huge research institute, shouldn't we just get rid of the institute?” Suto asked Machimura.

Machimura called Suto's scepticism “an insult” and said that the ministry had taken the investigation seriously. “We were not just trying to pull out some predetermined conclusion,” he protested. “I wish you would choose your words more carefully.”

Suto still plans to call Yoshii to testify, and says he will get to the bottom of why the government set so much store by Yoshii's results. “If Japan keeps going in this direction,” he warns, “it will undermine its scientific reputation.”

Additional reporting by Junko Chikatani.