Tokyo, Sept. 23 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s welfare ministry has said that it returned to Kazakhstan and Myanmar human remains mistakenly brought from the countries in a project to collect remains of Japanese who died overseas in World War II. This marked the first time that the ministry has returned remains of foreign people mistakenly collected in the project. The return followed the revelation in 2019 that the ministry had confused the remains of foreign people with those of Japanese people detained in Russia’s Siberia after the war. Similar mix-ups also occurred in the Philippines. The returned remains were two sets collected in Kazakhstan in 2001 and four sets collected in Myanmar in 2001 and 2003. Following the 2019 revelation, Japan examined the remains and found between 2023 and 2024 that there was little possibility that they were Japanese. The ministry returned the six sets between June and July this year. Apart from this incident, two samples of remains brought to Japan due to uncertainty about whether they were Japanese had been returned to Kazakhstan in 2022. The ministry is negotiating with Russia to return remains wrongly brought to Japan in the project. But the negotiations have stalled partly due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. After the 2019 revelation, the ministry reviewed its collection methods. In 2020, it introduced a method to conduct DNA tests first on portions of remains believed to be Japanese and bring the rest to Japan if they are confirmed to be Japanese. However, this method can prolong the time remains stay abroad. This month, the ministry began a trial procedure to bring entire sets of remains for DNA analysis only when there is a high likelihood they are Japanese, such as those found at mass burial sites for Japanese soldiers. It is estimated that about 2.4 million Japanese died overseas in World War II, with remains of 1.12 million people still unrecovered. The ministry is stepping up efforts to collect these remains during the intensive collection period through 2029. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
