Family continues search for Japanese boy who sent message in bottle

Zulkafli Abd Razak's son is embarking on a journey to Tanegashima, Japan, to reconnect with Kowaki Yohei, the 10-year-old who sent him a message in a bottle in 1999. Zulkafli's daughter, Shafura, 33, revealed that her brother makes yearly trips to Japan, primarily to Osaka and Tokyo, in an effort to locate Yohei. Currently, he has only the former primary school's email address and has yet to make contact.

If he successfully locates Yohei, he intends to bring back the original letters and items, allowing them to meet and reconnect with their past. The family has no recent updates on Yohei's current situation. Zulkafli, who was 36 when he found the bottle, was involved in a conservation program that included the Fisheries Department, BP Petronas Acetyls, the Menyemai Kasih Rakyat Kerteh NGO, and others.

The message in the bottle contained an origami crane, a map of Tanegashima Island, and two letters, one in English and the other in Japanese. The English letter, addressed to Nishino Primary School, had been sent by school principal Nakamura Koichi on October 2, 1989, announcing the release of 117 bottled messages into the ocean.

The Japanese letter was written by six-year-old Kowaki Yohei. Zulkafli sent a letter and hand-drawn map to the school principal in May 1999. Following this, BPPA collaborated with the BP Amoco network in Japan to trace both the former principal and student. The efforts were successful, and Zulkafli received responses from the school's current principal and students.

When Yohei, now 16 and a high school student, wrote back in October 1999, he expressed his joy that his message arrived in Malaysia a decade after it was sent. Zulkafli and Yohei met in August 1999 in Kuala Lumpur, but they lost touch when Zulkafli forgot to obtain Yohei's permanent address.