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Japan Times
26-05-2025
- General
- Japan Times
Remains of 368 Japanese war dead laid to rest in National Cemetery
The remains of 368 Japanese people were newly laid to rest in a memorial service in Tokyo on Monday at a national cemetery for unidentified people who died abroad during World War II. The remains were collected from locations including Ioto, a Pacific island widely known as Iwo Jima, Solomon Islands and Russia. The number of people laid to rest at the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery now totals 371,008, including those who died after the war as detainees in Siberia. Of some 2.4 million Japanese people who died abroad during the war, the remains of 1.12 million have not been recovered 80 years after the end of the war. Some 400 people including bereaved family members attended Monday's ceremony, hosted by the welfare ministry. Crown Prince Akishino, Crown Princess Kiko and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba were among them. In a speech, welfare minister Takamaro Fukuoka pledged to pass on lessons from the war to future generations so that it would not be repeated. The crown prince and the crown princess offered prayers and bereaved family members laid flowers. Of the remains brought back by then-Japanese troops or collected on government missions, those that remained unidentified or for which families were not found were laid to rest at the cemetery, built in 1959.
Asahi Shimbun
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Asahi Shimbun
Japan, Palau plan to recover remains of 1,000 killed in WWII
PELELIU, Palau—Japan and Palau will undertake one of the largest recoveries of remains of Japanese soldiers killed during World War II. Welfare minister Takamaro Fukuoka met with Ngiraibelas Tmetuchl, the Palau minister of human resources, tourism, culture and development, on May 5, and they agreed to cooperate in recovering the war-dead remains. The island of Peleliu, located about 3,000 kilometers south of Japan, was the scene of heavy fighting from Sept. 15, 1944, between the Imperial Japanese Army and the U.S. Army. Japan had trusteeship over Palau after Germany's defeat in World War I and made the island nation a major military base. The Battle of Peleliu over about two months left about 10,000 Japanese soldiers dead, while the U.S. side suffered casualties of between 1,600 and 1,700. The Japanese government first sent a team to recover remains in 1953. So far, the remains of 7,800 soldiers have been collected. A mass grave site where the U.S. military buried the Japanese war dead soon after the battle was discovered last year. Welfare ministry officials examined declassified U.S. military documents, which showed that 1,086 Japanese soldiers had been buried in the mass grave. That figure is close to half of the 2,400 or so soldiers whose remains have not been found in Palau. The project would be the largest of its kind since 2010, when about 2,000 remains were uncovered on Iwoto island, previously known as Iwojima. Under Palau law, the digging up of remains must be conducted with a Palau official observing the work. Fukuoka said he received assurances that the Palau government would cooperate in providing witnesses for the recovery work. After the discovery of the mass grave, the welfare ministry doubled the amount in the current fiscal year budget for recovering war-dead remains to 93 million yen ($650,000). While the Palau project will likely bring closure to many Japanese families, there are still about 1.12 million Japanese war dead outside of Japan whose remains have not been dug up and brought back home.
Japan Times
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
LDP plans to submit pension reform bill in mid-May
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party notified the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan on Thursday that it plans to submit a pension system reform bill to parliament around mid-May. The CDP responded that it will prepare a no-confidence motion against welfare minister Takamaro Fukuoka if the LDP does not provide a specific submission date by Friday. Pension system reform is a key issue in the second half of the ongoing ordinary parliament session. On Thursday, LDP Diet affairs chief Tetsushi Sakamoto told his CDP counterpart, Hirofumi Ryu, that the ruling party has given up on submitting the bill this month but can submit it as early as mid-May. Ryu criticized the delay at the meeting, and later told reporters that his party would "begin preparations to submit a no-confidence motion if a specific submission date is not presented by tomorrow." The LDP's Health, Labor and Welfare Division held discussions on the matter the same day, but there remains strong opposition within the party to submitting the bill, wary of its potential impact on this summer's House of Councilors election. A draft bill included a plan to shore up basic pension benefits under the "Kokumin Nenkin" program by using funds from the "Kosei Nenkin" program. But many LDP members, especially those in the Upper House, are concerned that the plan could be criticized as misappropriation of Kosei Nenkin funds. The welfare ministry has signaled that it intends to remove the plan from the bill.
24-04-2025
- Business
LDP Plans to Submit Pension Reform Bill in Mid-May
News from Japan Politics Apr 24, 2025 19:07 (JST) Tokyo, April 24 (Jiji Press)--Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party notified the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan on Thursday that it plans to submit a pension system reform bill to the Diet around mid-May. The CDP responded that it will prepare a no-confidence motion against welfare minister Takamaro Fukuoka if the LDP does not provide a specific submission date by Friday. Pension system reform is a key issue in the second half of the ongoing ordinary Diet session. On Thursday, LDP Diet affairs chief Tetsushi Sakamoto told his CDP counterpart, Hirofumi Ryu, that the ruling party has given up on submitting the bill this month but can submit it as early as mid-May. Ryu criticized the delay at the meeting, and later told reporters that his party would "begin preparations to submit a no-confidence motion if a specific submission date is not presented by tomorrow." [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
Japan Times
23-04-2025
- Health
- Japan Times
Japan's new health institute gives first acute respiratory infection cases tally
The number of new acute respiratory infection, or ARI, cases reported at some 3,000 designated medical institutions across Japan was 181,270 in the week through April 13, a new national institute said Tuesday. This was the first tally of such cases since ARI, a general term for cold and other symptoms, was designated as a Category V disease under the infectious diseases control law. The government aims to swiftly detect unknown illnesses by monitoring ARI cases on a regular basis. According to the Japan Institute for Health Security, created this month by integrating the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, the number of ARI patients per medical institution in the reporting week stood at 49.39. By prefecture, Tochigi logged the highest figure, at 94.13, and Kochi posted the lowest figure, at 27.37. The number of ARI patients will be released every Tuesday, and the overview of the ARI situation in Japan will be updated every Friday. Health minister Takamaro Fukuoka told a news conference Tuesday that his ministry aims to warn against infectious diseases early and take appropriate measures.
