Yellowknife RCMP say search for missing tourist shifts north

The Yellowknife RCMP are moving the focus of their search for Japanese tourist Atsumi Yoshikubo into a wilderness area north of the city.

The police say they've finished searching in the immediate vicinity of Yellowknife and they've received new information that leads them to thinking Yoshikubo may be travelling north.

They say they'll be using aircraft equipped with Forward Looking Infrared which can detect the heat signature of a human being. They'll also be using some ground searchers including police dogs.

The Civil Air Search and Rescue Association will also be looking in the area.

The RCMP are thanking members of the public who have been assisting in the search, but say there is no longer a need for volunteers because of the shift north.

Yoshikubo, 45, was last seen more than a week ago. She was walking down highway 4 toward the Ingraham Trail. Search crews have been looking for her since Monday afternoon, when she was reported missing. 

Yoshikubo’s father told a Japanese broadcaster his daughter is a doctor who once worked with him at his clinic in the town of Uto on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. He also said his daughter went on trips on her own.

Yellowknife is not an uncommon destination for Japanese travellers.  The territorial government says about 30,000 tourists have visited from that country in the past two years, a number it says has increased steadily since 2001. 
The numbers are high enough for the city of 20,000 that several restaurants in town print menus in Japanese.