August 20, 2025

A civic group working to memorialize the wartime fatal disaster at an undersea coal mine in Yamaguchi’s Ube City on August 19 made representations to the Labor and Foreign Affairs ministries, demanding that the Japanese government provide support for the group’s activities to recover the disaster victims’ remains.

Along with Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councillors Koike Akira, lawmakers from the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Social Democratic Party joined in this action.

The disaster occurred in 1942 at Chosei Coal Mine, claiming the lives of 183 workers. Of them, 136 were Koreans, most of whom were brought to Japan from the Korean Peninsula as forced laborers. The remains of the 186 victims lie at sea, unrecovered.

In the representations, the group’s co-head Inoue Yoko noted that this year marks 60 years since the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea and 80 years since the end of WWII. She said that it is high time for the Japanese government to take action to recover the remains of the victims of the Chosei Coal Mine disaster. Stating that the group plans to conduct a large-scale underwater survey in early 2026 with the participation of world-class divers, Inoue demanded that the government foot the bill for the survey costing about 30 million yen with the use of a supplementary budget.

JCP Koike requested an official of the Labor Ministry to disclose detailed information regarding the ministry’s hearing with experts in regard to support for efforts to collect the remains. The official declined Koike’s request.

At a press conference after the representations, Inoue said that the issue related to the Chosei Coal Mine disaster was taken up by the South Korean parliament after the group spoke to the media in Seoul a week earlier about its efforts to recover the remains. She said that the Korean workers who died in the 1942 underwater mine disaster were the victims of Japan’s colonization of Korea, adding that her group will continue to press the Japanese government to deal with the matter in a sincere manner.

Past related article:
> JCP Koike calls for gov’t support for efforts to collect remains of victims of wartime undersea coal mine disaster [May 21, 2025]