By Charles Scanlon BBC correspondent in Tokyo

The Japanese Government says five nationals abducted by North Korea 24 years ago will stay in Japan indefinitely.

The returnees have not publicly said they want to stay

They were due to return to North Korea in the next few days, after their first ever visit home - permitted after North Korea admitted the abductions last month.

The five are the only known survivors of 13 Japanese kidnapped by North Korean agents a quarter of a century ago.

Japan is demanding that their children, who were left behind in North Korea, be allowed to join them.

Children left behind

The men and women, now in their mid forties, have been holding emotional reunions with relatives and friends since they were allowed home in mid-October.

Megumi Yokota is said to have committed suicide
	Japan's missing Eight Japanese said to be dead Five still alive in North Korea The survivors have children in N Korea Kim Jong-il says he has punished the culprits See also: Profiles of the missing

North Korea wanted the visits to be temporary, but Japan now says the kidnap victims will be staying on indefinitely.

Japan's chief cabinet secretary said the return of their seven children, who were left behind in Pyong Yang, was a top priority.

Japan would insist on it, he said, when negotiations begin with North Korea next week on the establishment of diplomatic relations.

The children, in their teens and early twenties, are seen as hostages by many in Japan - the abductees themselves have been extremely cautious in their public statements, adding to suspicions that they cannot speak freely.

They have not said explicitly that they want to settle in Japan.

One said his children did not even know he was Japanese, and they would suffer culture-shock if they settled in Japan.

It is unclear how North Korea will react to Japan's decision.

It has been sending out mixed signals since the extraordinary admission last month that 13 Japanese had been abducted in the 1970s and 1980s to serve as language teachers for North Korean spies.