In a show of good faith, Japan announced Thursday that it would remove or ease up on a number of sanctions it placed on North Korea while Pyongyang opens up investigations into the kidnappings of Japanese citizens decades ago.

According to The Washington Post, Japan will continue to uphold resolutions imposed by the United Nations Security Council but will lift some travel bans and ease its oversight of remittances. Also, North Korean ships meant for humanitarian purposes will be allowed access to Japan.

Japanese diplomats met with North Korean officials this week in Beijing, where they were told that a new committee was put together in Pyongyang to investigate the abductions that took place in the 1970s and '80s.

North Korea's investigative committee appeared to be credible, as it included some of the nation's most powerful figureheads, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday.

"This is only a start," Abe said. "We will do our utmost to resolve this issue."

According to The Post, dozens and possibly hundreds of Japanese nationals were abducted in a state-sponsored effort. North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had captured 13 Japanese citizens, though only five were still alive and returned to Japan.

It also claimed the others were dead, but Japan argued that the North's claims were false based on its explanations of the deaths. Two of the supposed victims were handed over to Japan, but DNA tests did not find a match.

According to a Japanese website devoted to the kidnapped individuals, the government officially recognizes 17 victims abducted and vows that "until this issue is resolved, there can be no normalization of relations with North Korea."

On Thursday, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan could expect to see North Korea's initial report on the abductions as early as the end of summer, The Post reported.

"After long years of waiting, North Korea has always shut its door," Suga said. "But we've finally found a way to open their door."

In 2008, North Korea said it would open the investigation of the cases, but those efforts proved unfruitful.