December 20, 2025

Together with a group of bereaved families from South Korea, Japanese civic groups on December 19 negotiated with the Labor and Welfare Ministry as well as with the Foreign Ministry on the issue of the return of remains of Koreans who were forcibly mobilized for Japan’s war of aggression.

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councillors Yamazoe Taku joined in this action. Stating that the repatriation of Korean victims’ remains is an issue that Japan must deal with as a matter of national responsibility, he demanded an early return of the remains to the bereaved families.

Many sets of remains belonging to wartime forced mobilization victims are still held in Japan. They include, for example, the remains of Koreans killed in the Ukishima Maru incident which occurred shortly after the end of the war in August 1945. A Japanese transport vessel, Ukishima Maru, carrying Koreans, primarily forced laborers and their families, was sunk off the coast of Kyoto’s Maizuru City due to a collision with an underwater mine placed by the U.S. military.

Ueda Keiji, who co-heads a civic group working to return the remains of Korean victims to their families, criticized the Japanese government’s stance. He said that the government, especially the Labor and Welfare Ministry, should face up to the fact that the ministry played a role in mobilizing Koreans into support roles in Japan’s war of aggression, and thus make sincere efforts to meet the bereaved families’ demand for an early return of the remains.

Kim Yeong-hwan of a South Korean group supporting the forced mobilization victims and bereaved families noted that the South Korean government has allowed for the repatriation of the remains of Japanese war dead collected in the nation. He criticized the Japanese government’s stance as being immoral by stating, “Why doesn’t Japan do the same?”

Buddhist priest Tonohira Yoshihiko, who is also a member of a religious group working for the return of the Korean victims’ remains, said, “I’m feeling extremely upset and angry with the situation in which there is no progress being made in efforts to return the remains to their families.” He called on the government to devote itself wholeheartedly to properly address this issue.