Japan's top government spokesperson has met the mother of a woman abducted by North Korea decades ago, and pledged all-out efforts to bring all the remaining abductees back home.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi Yoshimasa, who also serves as minister in charge of the abduction issue, met Yokota Sakie at the prime minister's office on Thursday. She is the mother of Yokota Megumi, who was abducted in 1977 when she was 13 years old.

Yokota told Hayashi that she has met many prime ministers at the office and asked them to repatriate all abductees.

She added that she wants the government to realize their return as soon as possible because she is physically weakening.

Yokota will turn 88 next month. She is one of only two living parents of the officially recognized abductees.

Ikeda Masaki, who represents a group of Megumi's former classmates, joined the meeting. He told Hayashi that he is desperate as time is running out to allow the parents to be reunited with their loved ones. He said he wants government officials to handle the matter as if their own children had been abducted.

Ikeda referred to a message of sympathy reportedly sent by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio over the powerful earthquake that jolted Japan's Noto Peninsula and surrounding areas on New Year's Day.

Ikeda said he wants the government to strive to hold a Japan-North Korea summit at an early date.

Yokota and Ikeda delivered to Hayashi a petition signed by more than 200 people calling for an early resolution of the abduction issue.

Hayashi said the Cabinet places top priority on the issue. He said many immediate relatives of the remaining abductees are advanced in age and that the government will stand by them while addressing the issue under time constraints.

Japan's government says North Korean agents abducted at least 17 citizens in the 1970s and 1980s. Five returned in 2002, but the other 12 remain unaccounted for.