Search for Arctic explorer halted

Hopes were today fading for a Japanese adventurer missing in the Arctic since last week after the Canadian air force called off its search.

Hyoichi Kono, 43, who in 1997 became the first Japanese to reach the North Pole solo on foot, was on a 9,300-mile journey to Japan by kayak, sled, skis and foot via Canada, Alaska and Russia’s Sakhalin island.

His expected return date was 2007, said Yoshiko Shinohara, a spokeswoman for his support group.

Shinohara said the support group’s base camp in Resolute in Canada’s Northwest Territories would ask Canadian authorities through Japanese diplomatic channels to continue searching for Kono.